To the editor:

The United States Constitution specifies the age a citizen must achieve in order to be eligible to hold elective office in the federal government. These minimum ages start with the actual date of birth.

Some think that life begins at conception, but this is a modern opinion, not an opinion based on the Christian Bible. And it is, after all, just an opinion. One ancient idea held that the sperm cell contains a little man, so perhaps, in that view, a sperm is alive and possesses a right to live on. Dare we leave out the egg? However, the Bible, like the Constitution, uses the date of birth to mark the beginning of life and the determination of age.

Some traditions used the moment of quickening, the first fetal movement, as the beginning. For most of us, an infant born and able to live on its own marks the beginning of life. Until then, the fetus is a part of the mother’s body, and therefore she has the right of choice.

Other traditions fix the date of full personhood at age 8, 14, 18 or even 21.

The truth is that life never ends; it is always reforming itself, developing, growing and finally returning to a natural state where it can be used again.

People can hold any view they like regarding the beginning of life, but the Constitution is the law. If we do not honor it, we could lose it. Let’s keep politics and church life separate for the health of both.

Julian Taber

Coupeville