Michael Asciak MD starts his letter “A restrictive mentality” (TMIS, 26 June) with a glaring mistake and profound lack of logic when he mixes up the solstice and the equinox and states that the longest day of the year happens twice a year. Unfortunately, the logic does not improve in the remaining part of the letter when he casually equates human life to human being.

The only definition of human life that includes a fertilized human egg is “one or more living cells that contain human DNA”. This kind of human life is regularly and unceremoniously destroyed whenever a biopsy is performed, an unsightly mole is removed, a baby is circumcised, blood is spilled, an umbilical cord is thrown out, etc. Why should we deal any differently with fertilized eggs and embryos?

A human being is something entirely different. It only comes into existence at the moment of birth, when it starts to breathe and can survive independent of its mother. That is when babies get a name and why we celebrate birthdays and mention the dates of birth and death on tombstones. According to our present moral values human beings deserve protection and to be treated with dignity. Similarly, as shown by the examples above, human life, as defined above, does not. We do not bury the embryo or foetus when a miscarriage has occurred.

This whole discussion about freezing embryos versus eggs is an irrelevant waste of time. There is no logical reason not to follow the most effective route to getting the woman (a human being) pregnant.

Simon Oosterman

SLIEMA