This is in response to Mr. Ed Field’s letter to the editor of Oct. 16. For the readers who may have missed it, Mr. Field, in the guise of a science lesson discussing certain similarities between a fetus at different stages in its development and various life forms in the evolutionary chain of development (a proposition I would remind the reader is theoretical in nature), suggests that, because of these similarities, the fetus is somehow less than a “person.” In fact, he repeats this assertion at each stage of this supposed developmental discussion, as if to convince himself as much as his reader.

The most relevant scientific fact that Mr. Field includes in his discussion, however, again repeated at each stage of his developmental discussion, is that the fetal tissue “contains human DNA.” Due to his assertion that these varying stages of fetal development are “indistinguishable” from the life forms being proposed, I would suggest that he misses the significance of this fact all together. Arguably, the fetus may resemble the varying forms of life he suggests from a purely visual frame of reference, but he fails to recognize in his discussion that the human DNA contained in the fetal tissue bears a unique genetic signature marking the fetus as a fully human individual, distinct from either mother or father, or any other creature on the planet. It bears that uniqueness from the moment of conception, and can be identified by that signature for the rest of his or her life.

He goes on to suggest that an infant is somehow not deserving of the title “person” until that magical moment, sometime after birth, when he or she has developed to the point that they can be recognized as such. He states further that, “Our brain distinguishes us from all other forms of life on earth.” I would suggest that Mr. Field confuses personality with personhood and that neither physical nor mental development has any bearing on personhood.

If we were to accept his postulate, would that mean that those of us who suffer from developmental impairment are somehow less persons than those of us who don’t? Or is the graduate student or PhD who has developed their mental capacities beyond those with only an elementary or high school education somehow more deserving of personhood? Of course not. Our founding fathers recognized this when they asserted that “all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, . . .” It is high time we recognized this right from the moment a person becomes a unique individual human being — the instant of conception. To quote the hero of a well known children’s book, “A person’s a person, no matter how small.” I would encourage you all to vote “Yes” on Statewide Initiative No. 26.

David C. Baity

Natchez resident