The Editor, Sir:

I write regarding the Abortion Policy Review Advisory Group formed by the Ministry of Health (MoH) to look into abortion and make recommendations to the Jamaican Parliament.

I am not happy with the composition of this group. There seems to be only one cleric amongst them, when it has already been established that abortion is mostly a theological and philosophical issue.

In 1978, Dr. Wilvin T. Wiggins University of the West Indies lecturer in philosophy said in his book, Introduction to Philosophy Series Number 1 Plato's Republic that it was becoming clearer that questions concerning abortion cannot be dealt with without precipitating ultimate questions and hence philosophical questions. Has the MoH regressed?

By looking at the ten-point questionnaire used by the group with the eyes of an educator, I have weighted the medical, legal and theological content of the questions and found weightings more in keeping with Dr. Wiggins' disclosure. The ten-point questionnaire content-wise is 150 per cent more theological and philosophical than it is medical. My evaluation of the questionnaire demands that the MoH group have 150 per cent more clerics than medical doctors and nurses.

There is a wealth of clergy with philosophical and theological professionalism right here in Jamaica. Did the MoH possibly only put one in their group?

If the Abortion Advisory Group was not correctly composed, then will not their findings likely lead us astray?

I am, etc.,

ROMAIN STEWART

romainstewart@inbox.com

Kingston 6