LETTER: The debate over the beginning of life

Many years ago, I attended in the delivery room for the spontaneous miscarriage of a baby — a human baby — at 20 weeks gestation. I held the baby in the palm of my hand as I watched him struggle for breath. He had no chance of survival, but his tiny chest tried to bring air into his uncompleted lungs. I did not let the mother watch this distress, but when the baby stopped struggling, the mother wanted to hold him. She asked me to baptize him, which I did. She cried, and I cried with her. Thinking about it still brings tears to my eyes. Don’t try to tell me that the child I was holding was just a hunk of tissue.