SIR: The whole question of foetal research and abortion is back in the headlines again. It will not go away.

Since the passing of the infamous 1967 Abortion Act, literally millions of babies have been aborted; carnage which - if brought about in any other way - would justifiably warrant terms like 'plague' or 'holocaust'.

This issue just doesn't sit easily upon the conscience of our society... thankfully... since there is something inherently evil about doing ill to a child.

And yet as a society we have been lulled into thinking of even this abhorrent evil of abortion on demand - as a 'freedom'. Phrases like 'a women's right to choose' drop lightly from the lips of those who propose such licence posing as liberty.

We would do well to remember the salutary caution of Edmund Burke who said: "All it takes for evil to flourish is for good men to do nothing." How true. We cannot throw up our hands in horror at the wicked world in which we live - the world of Dunblane, Hungerford, and other such horrors - and yet escape some portion of the blame ourselves.

Our society is as strong.. or as weak... as that which will tolerate.

Let us not fail our children - and those yet unborn. Let us be prepared to stand up for the family for traditional moral values, and for honestly and decency in our society.

Bishop Peters,

The Church of Jesus Christ,

of Latterday Saints,

Gaskel Street,

Bolton.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.