“Human life begins when the fetus exits the vagina and lands in the cold real world.” (“After life begins, there is little support for mothers, babies.” March 14).

It is a cold world. To suggest that where someone lives, i.e. the uterus, determines whether or not she or he is a member of the human family is to continue the mistake of contributing to the cold world we live in. It’s something like saying that a Jew in Germany in the early 1940s was not a member of the human family unless they exited Germany by way of Switzerland, or that people living in Mexico are part of the human family, but not when they choose to enter the U.S. illegally. And that crack baby? Or the child of a rape victim?

I hope Shannon (the letter writer) would agree that our primary goal should be to offer welcome and compassion to all the members of the human family regardless of where they live, or where they come from, or how they got here.

My mother in the 1970s took in women experiencing unplanned pregnancies; one was actually a rape victim. If everyone could be as generous and compassionate as my mother, I think the world would be a brighter and warmer place for both the mother and the little one she carries. The smallest, most vulnerable members of the human family deserve our protection and compassion as well as their mothers. The answer to unfortunate cold realities is not more violence and disrespect, but warmth and welcome.

Will you open your heart to a woman under societal pressured to abort, but who wishes to keep her little one, or to offer her up for adoption? Let’s start today to practice compassion and respect for every member of our human family. Check out Angelorum.org as one model of compassion.

— Kathryn Myer