I would like to respond to a letter from Keri Putnam (Sept. 28).

In her letter, Putnam expresses the opinion that the factions in the debate over abortion should be labeled “pro-life” and “anti-life,” and also states, “your choice might be murder.”

In the early 70s, writer Judith Jacklin addressed the issue to the conflicting rights of the mother and the unborn most eloquently.

She proposed that while life may indeed begin at conception, no person born or unborn has the legal right to the use of your body without your permission.

For instance, if a fully grown, undoubtedly viable person suffered kidney failure and you were the only donor match on Earth, no existing law would require you to donate your kidney (or even single pint of blood for that matter). Even if a human life was at stake. You would not be prosecuted for murder, should you refuse. The courts leave such ethical considerations and choices up to you.

As Linda Ellerbee so concisely put it, “I am not for abortion. I am for the right to make hard decisions in this life.”

That is why the term pro-choice is much more than “only a matter of semantics.” It is a basic definition of the philosophy involved.

Shari Lewis

Graduate student

Theater arts