A South Asian view of the pro-life question

Womb with a Window: Ethical Reflections on the Personhood of the Unborn Through Scripture and Science

by Msgr Dr Antony Perumayan (Shanway Press, £12.00; contact 15 Crumlin Road, Belfast, Antrim BT14 6AA; email infro@shanway.com; tel: Northern Ireland 028 9022 2070)

The reverend author of this book is the National Co-ordinator of the Syro- Malabar Church which sees to the spiritual care of some 4,000 Indian Catholics of the St Thomas Tradition now resident in Ireland in some nine centres across the island. He himself was born in India in 1949, where he was educated, though he later took a science degree in Leuven.

This book is both a summary of Catholic teaching on the true nature of the unborn person. The material on this is deeply resourced and impressively documented. But the theology is presented in a setting of spiritual and scientific reflections on the nature and meaning of human life.

Changing
 Ireland

Many in the pro-life movement will find this an inestimable book, but it is in its way a small sign of the times in changing Ireland, and as such is also to be welcomed.

This book, which represents the fruits of a long pastoral and scientific career, is a sterling contribution to Catholic writing in Ireland, where Msgr Perumayan, after service in many Indian parishes, has made his home since 2011.