To the editor:

An author writes a book with the hope that it will be published — and the author’s name will be on the cover. An artist paints because he or she wants to share a picture or an impression of something; the artist’s name or initials are on the finished work. It is the same with the work of a potter; marks are put in the clay identifying whose work the object is.

How sad it is that two people, capable of making a human life, often do not want to put either of their names on the result of their “love making.” In the case of the 10 year old girl, who became pregnant due to a rape, aborting the baby was done for the girl’s physical and mental wellbeing. Not wanting to be responsible for impulsive actions, or having no plans to care for a little life that might be made, is a far different matter for two the persons “making love.”

There used to be a little verse written into autograph books by school children: “First comes love. Then come marriage. Then comes …. with a baby carriage.” That was God’s plan, too: Love, Marriage and then Children. When a person dies, their heart stops beating. When a heart starts beating, life exists, no matter how small the life is at that moment. Do we, as a country, want the right to kill an unborn baby on our conscience?

Surely a baby is more important than a book, or a painting or a piece of pottery.

Trudy Madetzke

Marshall