While I agree with Professor Hugh McLachlan (Letters, June 3) that Christians have not always agreed upon the status of the embryo, I would strongly take issue with his statement that "at no point in the gospels, or even in the Bible in its entirety, is the question of whether or when an embryo is due the moral status of a person directly addressed".

While I agree with Professor Hugh McLachlan (Letters, June 3) that Christians have not always agreed upon the status of the embryo, I would strongly take issue with his statement that "at no point in the gospels, or even in the Bible in its entirety, is the question of whether or when an embryo is due the moral status of a person directly addressed".

What makes a person human, distinct from all other animals? Genesis 1. 26 says: "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness." Human beings, in God's perspective, are unique, for in specific ways they "reflect" God's likeness; they reason, they decide, they have complex emotions. It is biblical perspective that our "significance" and status is very much to do with our relationship with God.

Psalm 139, v13-15: "You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother's womb. Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex. Your workmanship is marvellous - how well I know it. You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion, as I was woven together in the dark of the womb." So, according to the Bible, God was/is involved in our prenatal existence - from the very beginning.

As for the gospels, it is clear from the 1st chapter of Luke (written by an eminent Greek physician), that God was involved, both in the ability for a couple to conceive, and also in the continuing prenatal life of that embryo/foetus. I accept that most people nowadays do not know, or do not believe the Christian scriptures, but the biblical writings are consistent on this point.

Whether Christians agree or not on the moral status of the embryo, the distinct and clear biblical message is that God values human life hugely, and that human life begins prenatally. What's more, it seems that God's involvement with us even begins before conception. If we go by these scriptures, then the Christian surely should gauge the moral status of the embryo as being human from the very beginning. This is why abortion is such an important issue for the true Christian, for it strikes at the heart of humanness.

Alasdair H B Fyfe, Consultant paediatric surgeon, 59 Mearns Road, Clarkston, Glasgow.