I read with great interest, yet with some trepidation, the article reporting the news from Gift of Life on Malta’s almost unique position as a country which, as a whole (if the majority is to be accepted as such), respects human life from the point of conception until natural death.

I wonder how long this positive attitude to life will last before the ushering in, through the back door, of abortion and euthanasia by the agents of the culture of death and relativism. Though small in number, such agents somehow manage to wheedle their way into the minds and hearts of both gullible and minority vote-seeking politicians and the public alike.

Witness Belgium, where euthanasia is now ‘enshrined’ in the law, with few safeguards against abuse. There are too many ‘grey’ areas allowing for such abuse with nobody having the courage to, at least, define the exact circumstances in which such killing is allowed in the first place. People with depression have been targeted, among other groups.

Even children are at risk, as if they were not already at risk even as unborn human beings.

I am shocked and chilled to the core at the lengths to which people will go to in order to try to justify this culture of death. This often comes through attempting to manipulate the phrase ‘human beings’.

There are some who are prepared to accept that the unborn are human but quite happy to then say that unborn children are not human beings. This attitude denigrates the entire human race and is a poor attempt to justify abortion.

Some say it is ‘absurd’ to suggest that unborn human beings are viable until they are born. Except that abortion means preventing a child from being born.

What is it in the mentality of some people that they would reject even their very own flesh and blood? That they would deny their own existence while in the womb?

What parents, having discovered a pregnancy, go around telling people that their unborn child is ‘a meaningless ball of cells’? Why would anybody want to denigrate themselves, their parents and all other human beings through the use of such language?

It is by cheapening human life to such an extent, constantly grinding it down to the lowest common denominator, fighting tooth and nail to reduce it to a mere commodity, that abortion can be dressed up as being in some way acceptable.

Typical is the use of the word ‘foetus’ because using solely medical terminology helps people to avoid the word ‘human’. It somehow conveniently reduces the unborn human being to just a word.

But print a picture of an aborted human being or provide a graphic but true account of such a procedure and the guns are out. “How dare anybody scare people like that and be so graphic!”

We either have complete respect for human life, at all points of development, or we do not

Even scientists no longer hide from the fact that life begins at conception. Still some choose to deny this. How convenient it is to decide that a human is not human until it is safely out of the womb. Yet, they then become fair game for euthanasia.

And forget not those babies born prematurely or where abortions are carried out, with the child going on to survive. These are by no means rarities.

We either have complete respect for human life, at all points of development, or we do not. We either allow that development or we stop it. Which will it be in future?

Worst-case scenarios abound, particularly in the case of those who conceive through rape. But the many cases of such rape victims who are brave enough to keep their children, thus not making them victims too, are conveniently ignored.

Then there is the old humbug argument that only those of certain religious persuasions put up any opposition to abortion and euthanasia. This automatically accuses all those who embrace no belief of being supporters of the culture of death, whether or not they agree.

Politics being what they are, despite the denials of those in power, there is a very real danger that abortion and euthanasia could happen in Malta. But who am I to claim that the fundamental right to life itself should be the norm? I am just a human being.