SLEPIAN'S ASSASSIN WAS KILLER, NOT MARTYR
I am sick of the self-serving name calling! Who is really "pro-life"? Who is really "pro-abortion"? Those people who want to make all abortions illegal claim the name pro-life. But whose life? Certainly not the lives of women that were lost to back-alley butchers or self-induced illegal abortions prior to Roe vs. Wade.
And who is pro-abortion? No one I know. But I do believe in my right and my daughter's right to decide whether and when to have a child. This is because I so cherish the right of each child to be wanted and loved.
Barnett Slepian was a doctor and a man who helped women control their bodies and their lives. He provided women with safe health care. He was not an "abortion doctor."
His assassin was a murderer, plain and simple. If James Kopp is guilty, he is a "plain vanilla" murderer. If anyone wishes to invoke martyrdom and causes, the only cause Slepian died for was safe health care choices for women.
MARILYN CANTOR FEUERSTEIN
East Amherst
MURDER IS NOT A MEANS TO EXPRESS FREE SPEECH
The author of the letter, "Abortion is relevant to Kopp murder trial," seems to view the assassination of Dr. Barnett Slepian as on a par with newspaper editors (John Peter Zenger) criticizing government policies, and citizens demonstrating against laws (abolitionists and draft protesters) they don't like.
He ignores a very salient fact: Assassination is not an expression of free speech. The murderer of Slepian is no better than the men charged with the recent sniper killings.
LINDA DIDOMIZIO
Jamestown