Baroness Warnock: You Ask The Questions

Is there a God? ZOE GREEN, Manchester

There have always been gods, either as objects of fear or of aspiration. Our ideas of God change with our understanding, both of ourselves and of the rest of nature. I doubt whether such changing ideas will ever disappear.

What happens to us when we die? F FUBINI, London

We disappear from existence. But that doesn't mean that we disappear from other people's minds and hearts.

What do you think of Melanie Phillips, who accused you of being from a "pitiless planet"? THERESA MANN, Birmingham

I wonder, occasionally, why she is so cross.

What was the reasoning that led you to support the right to assisted suicide? TESSA QUINN-DAVIES, Guildford

I think I am moved more by compassion than reason. I could not bear to think of the suffering of Diane Pretty. I realise that "hard cases make bad law". But I believe that sooner or later we shall have to contrive a law that, in certain strictly limited cases, will permit assisted suicide.

Would you kill a sick friend who implored you to help them to die with dignity? JANE CHRISTIE, Bath

If I had the courage.

I am, like you, in my eighties. Do you really think I am hogging space and should "shuffle off" when become ill and a burden? L CLEMENT, Hove

Yes, but only when you are sure that you are a burden, and enjoy no compensatory pleasures.

If someone is physically healthy but chronically depressed and wants to end their life, should doctors be allowed to help? CELIA ROXBURGH, London

This is an extremely difficult question. Many people with severe clinical depression will sooner or later commit suicide unless under constant surveillance. If I were a doctor, I think (but don't know) that I might supply such a person with the means. But this is not to say that I wouldn't feel guilt and sorrow.

Have you left instructions to your children on how to kill you if you fall into terminal illness or develop senility? JULIAN BRIGGS, New York

No. I have written an Advance Decision, but this does not allow them to kill me, even if that is what I might prefer.

When does life begin? VALERIE GRAND, London

At no one moment. Fertilisation (or its equivalent in the production of an embryo in cloning) is a process rather than an event.

Do you think abortion is a religious, a moral, or a practical issue, and is Britain's 28-week limit on abortion outdated? SEAN MCKENNA, Amersham

It is, of course, a religious issue for those who are committed to a religion, part of whose teaching is to condemn abortion. To others, it is both moral and practical.

If prenatal tests show that my unborn baby has Down syndrome, should I have any moral qualms about having an abortion? R FOLEY, East Anglia

It would depend on whether I thought I was prepared to look after my child, however severe his disabilities. And this, in turn, depends on my circumstances - other children, career priorities, and so on. I would have to bear in mind that people with Down syndrome live far longer than they used to, and that someone might have to look after my child after I was dead. Personally, I think I would have experienced sorrow but not moral remorse.

Are there any circumstances when it would be right to use eugenics, for example, to avoid developing a disability? EOIN O'CONNOR, Camden

I think pre-implantation embryo selection for the avoidance of severe disability is justifiable.

Should animals have rights? DYLAN HEGARTY, Sheffield

We have duties towards animals that are in our power. But this does not entail that they have rights against us. The notion that all animals, wild as well as domestic, should be able to have rights upheld against human beings (or other animals) seems to me nonsensical.

Should we ever allow experimentation on primates? HUGH PAEMAN, Durham

I can imagine circumstances in which experimentation on primates as our nearest genetic relatives might be preferable to experimentation on human beings, but I hope that every alternative would be considered first.

What proof do I have of my own existence? GEORGE HOSKIN, Cambridge

If you did not exist, I could not communicate with you. You can prove that I exist, I can prove that you do. That should be proof enough.

Is it ever right to kill innocents in war? CHARLES TOWNLEY, Philadelphia

It is never right to kill innocents - in the sense that it is never a duty to do so. But it may be inevitable that, in war, innocents are killed. War should be so conducted, if it must be, that the killing of the innocent is kept to the minimum. Its inevitability is the strongest argument against war.

Do you think women in the West have achieved equality? SARAH RIFKIN, Manchester

No, though they have advanced.

Do you feel bad about the fact that your original and misguided views on special needs education have led to a disastrous outcome for a great many families? DEREK AYLING, Bristol

You are wrong about my original views, as you would see if you read the 1978 report.

Lesbians and single people now have the right to free fertility treatment in Britain. Have we gone too far towards accepting that everyone has the "right" to have a baby? ANNA BATTERSBURY, Farnborough

I do not believe that people have a right to have children. But I do not believe, either, that single people or lesbians should be debarred from receiving IVF treatment.

You previously opposed human reproductive cloning. Now you think there are no ethical objections providing it is proved safe. Why did you change your mind? AMIR AKBAR, Greenwich

I was never opposed to human reproductive cloning on moral grounds - unless being unsafe counts as a moral objection.

How can we trust the moral and ethical guidance of someone who has changed her mind as often as you have? JOSH PETERS, Paisley

Please don't trust me if you don't regard me as trustworthy.

Do you watch Big Brother and what do you think about it? Is it morally wrong to exploit people for reality television? BECCA CRANLEY, Norwich

I don't watch Big Brother, but if people get paid to appear, I doubt whether it constitutes exploitation.

I had an ethics lecturer who said something cannot be "good" but only a good cheese. Can something really be only a good cheese? POLLY SOUTHERN, California

This is a theory that can be traced back to Aristotle. He did not think that "goodness" was an identifiable property, but that each thing (including human beings) had its own way of being good. In this I think he was right.

Do you like being described as Britain's philosopher queen? S KEEPING, Oxford

I have had worse, though less nonsensical things have been said of me (for example, by Melanie Phillips).

Professor Mary Beard has suggested that Eduard Fraenkel's status as a classical scholar is diminished by his inappropriate conduct towards women in his Oxford classes in the post-war years. As a former student of Fraenkel's, do you agree? MICK MORRIS, Hamilton, Scotland

I think, alas, Professor Beard is talking nonsense.

Is Judaeo-Christian morality bankrupt? SABINE KADUK, Oxford

No. Though particular moral prohibitions both among Jews and Christians may be indefensible, the view of man as bound by law, in a relationship to the natural world, remains the most solid foundation for societies.

Next Monday: You Ask The Questions of Lord Tebbit. Send your questions to: myquestion@independent.co.uk

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