Freedom as a duty not hindered by its impact on others

The Puritans, who contributed to colonising what is now the United States, were very much about taking short cuts, even in their Bible readings. Freedom through duty (to others) is a core Christian tenet.

Their abbreviated reading of the New Testament was, and is, that freedom is a duty regardless of what effect it has on others.

Simon Rolleston, Bromley

Supreme Court

Who’d want to be a justice on the US Supreme Court?

Having decided, it seems, that Roe v Wade (a woman’s right to an abortion) is to be reversed, they must word the ruling in a most weaselly fashion.

Why? If the sanctity of the life of a foetus is paramount then how will this affect other Supreme Court rulings on the death penalty and firearms.

If life is sacrosanct then the death penalty is wrong.

And the right to bear arms becomes indefensible when its purpose is to make the taking of life easier.

I once read words to the effect that in the US ‘‘everyone has the right to life until they are born’’.

It is the Supreme Court’s problem to word its upcoming decision to prove that statement true.