December 26, 1967

Mrs. Edward E. Roberts

26 Eddington Lane

Willingboro, New Jersey 08046
Dear Mrs. Roberts:

Please do not attribute the tardiness of my reply to your letter of

November 1 to lack of appreciation for your thoughtful remarks. To be —_
perfectly frank with you, I was rather startled to be faulted with a —
“masculine” point of view when it was exactly this that I have been on
opposing in many discussions in such areas as eugenics, patterns of

education, and the law of abortion. Then I reread the sentence that

you quoted in context, and I realized I used a particularly infelici-~

tous phrase in talking about "merely to reflect the emotional involve-
ment”. The term "merely" was not intended to minimize the importance
of the emotional involvement of mature human beings with infants and
fetuses. And the last thing in the world that I wokhdd wish to suggest =
is the impo&éfion on someone else of what their feelings ought to be
with respect to an unborn child. Nor do I question that an unborn child
is "alive".

the feelings and irrational purposes, and the social and legal responsi-
bilities of a woman may be in tatense conflict. In an extremely stressful
situation, the emotional relationship of a pregnant woman to her pros-
pective child may be quite different from that which ought to attend any
pregnancy, and it is in these circumstances that I feel the ultimate de-
cision should be in the hands of one single person, the mother herself.
The community is perhaps not ready to accept quite such a degree of indi-
vidual decision, but there does seem to be now substantial support for
legitimizing abortion when there is also contributory evidence bearing on
the future health of the woman facing the responsibilities of motherhood.
It is just in these circumstances that I would speak for tolerance and
compassion for a medical solution to the problem of an a4nappropriate preg-
nancy. Besides the welfare of the woman, I would also place great stress
on the right of any born child to be wanted and to find a home in which
the mental repose as well as the physical comfort of his surrpundings
will allow for his best chance at happy development.

S
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As you well know, however, there are many unfortunate circumstances where Az
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Mrs. Edward E. Roberts December 26, 1967
Page 2

Under the best of circumstances an abortion is such a distressing experience
that I hardly see how any law can be characterized as “encouraging abortion”.
I do favor the extension of laws which permit abortion to be conducted in a
medically secure environment to take the place of the very prevalent occur-
rence of bootlegged abortions, as now eccur, and to give a better chance for
the mental and physical health of the women who find this choice the better
of a set of unhappy alternatives. I scarcely believe that it would encourage
amoral behavior to insist on the prospect of facing an abortion as the penalty
of a contraceptive indiscretion.

I would rather point to positive moral teaching, and in this I would ina&lude
the frankest and most open-minded discussion of the significance of sex and

ilove in human relationships as the only conceivable way to counter the trend
you write about.

Sincerely yours,

Joshua Lederberg
Professor of Genetics

P.S. In reviewing this letter I realize I should amplify the distinction
between being "alive" and being a "human being”. But I can hardly do more
than point out that every one of your isolated tissues is certainly alive,
and that ve are constantly shedding living cells without giving very much
thought about it. On the other hand, I do not see any way in which a
acientifically absolute answer can be given to how to define s human being.
This is what I meant when I suggested that such a definition is « matter of
emotion rather than of science.