ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, December 7, 1996 TAG: 9612090003
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-9 EDITION: METRO
TYPE: LETTERS
I WAS shocked by your Nov. 19 Associated Press news article, ```It wasn't just a life - it was their child's life'.'' Here are two 18-year-olds from good families, both starting college with promising futures. They made a mistake by conceiving a child. They disposed of it after it was born, and now they face murder charges and possibly the death penalty.
What have we come to? These kids aren't murderers, but are good people who, through an honest mistake, conceived a child-life tissue mass at a very inconvenient time. Think of what a baby would have done to their reputations and their plans for future careers.
Now, for the state to enter into their personal right to choose their destiny is unbelievable. After all, it's our right to choose our fate in life, and not some will of God's. The law and our leaders confirm this. Weren't these kids born with Roe vs. Wade as the law of this great country?
The more I think about it, this thing that was born wasn't really a child. They hadn't named it, and the state hadn't issued a birth record. Who are we to interfere with this couple's private decision? This would be a great case to argue right up to the Supreme Court. Come, join my crusade. I even have the perfect bumper sticker: ``I am for disposal of newborns conceived out of inconvenience, and I vote.''
This is grim satire, but what are we teaching our children when abortion is tolerated?
THOMAS M. FAME
SALEM
Should doctors consider unions?
SANDRA BROWN Kelly's Nov. 24 Health Care column, ``It's a tough time to be a nurse,'' prompted me to think that soon it will be a tough time to be a physician.
Surely, it has occurred to the management of the Carilion hospitals that surgery is also a technical skill. I have no doubt Carilion will be able to cross-train nursing assistants to perform procedures such as biopsies, Caesarean sections and appendectomies in just a few weeks. Of course, a licensed physician would have to supervise these operating nursing assistants. And if anything goes wrong, the physician's license could be in jeopardy. However, the tremendous savings in cost would certainly justify any problems incurred.
I sincerely hope the medical doctors employed by Carilion have started talking to collective-bargaining organizations set up especially for physicians. They are going to need help.
JACKIE COLLINS
BLACKSBURG
Show tolerance in freedom of speech
UPON READING the editorial section daily and enjoying the diversity in the opinions of the readers here in the valley, I am struck with the one main vein many readers run in. These are well-meaning, upright citizens who assume that all angles of thought, worldview and commentary must be projected from a Christian standpoint.
These folks may claim Christianity as the basis for their own views. But often, in addition to simple free speech on their own positions, there are harsh words about community, political and moral issues because things are not ``Christian'' enough. They berate society and their outer world as though all others are to hold the same perspectives, and ought to know better.
While I believe that a general consideration toward our fellow man is the unifying factor in nearly all religions - and for atheists and agnostics as well - I don't believe any one group can monopolize cultural ethics or chide society for deviating from a particular religion and its particular creed. This country is a very big place filled with a wide range of thought. Therefore, diversity of worldviews, along with tolerance and a little acceptance, could be invaluable assets if we are to live in any semblance of unity at all.
Free speech is admirable, but to assume that all of society must agree with us is an extended step beyond this.
ANNE CARNEY
SALEM
Catholic teachings could have helped
YOUR NOV. 4 Associated Press news article (``Bishop upset over access to death row'') does, and should, provoke outrage. It's an outrage that these Catholics very well might not be on death row had this bishop insisted on Catholic doctrine and tradition being taught to our youth during his tenure in this diocese.
This bishop's ``tight schedule'' is traveling around the state for photograph opportunities while many of his priests are publicly defying the pope and magisterium of the church.
Never in his churches that I have attended do you hear his priests decrying the outrage of the wholesale slaughter of our innocents, nor do you hear them address the vast majority of our youth marrying outside the church simply because they have no knowledge whatsoever of what this faith entails.
Priests rightfully teach the love of Almighty God for all his people, regardless of creed. But there is another side of the coin that is never mentioned. Two thousand years ago, the Messiah came as a savior. He will come again, but this time as a judge.
Bishop Walter Sullivan needs to get his own house in order.
ROBERT BOWEN
PEARISBURG
LENGTH: Medium: 99 linesby CNB