Dear Ms Brown:

Please forgive me for pressing this question, but your reply was not really responsive to what I asked.

Clearly, we want the government do nothing to prevent us from the practice of our Catholic faith. But do we want the government to allow people of other faiths to practice theirs if the belief systems are inconsistent with Catholic doctrine?

If Christian Science parents withhold essential life saving medical treatment from their children should the government respect this or should there be laws that require life saving medical intervention?

If a faith rejects the personhood of a fertilized egg should we be trying to prevent its believers from using birth control and getting abortion by campaigning for prohibitive government legislation?

Does religious freedom apply only to Catholics or does it apply to people of all faiths?

Dear Ann

The questions you pose are best answered from the perspective of a system of laws that recognizes the validity of human reason and thus consistently protects human beings from intentional acts that result in the death of innocent persons.

In other words, denying medical treatment to a child is cruel because the decision is denying that human being's right to life. Even though a faith system embraced by the parents to deny that treatment is the argument, the state has a legitimate right to protect the innocent from certain death.

By the same token, denying protection to the human person at the beginning of his life is consistent with denying a human being's right to life.

By the way, your use of the term, "fertilized egg" is erroneous.

Both of the scenarios you describe are crimes against the human person and the law should protect innocent persons from such criminal acts.

Judie Brown

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