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that receive a certain sanction in the writings of St. Paul. Ob- viously, an operation never dreamed of in early Christian times is not forbidden in the Bible, nor is there any verse that can be construed to forbid it in spirit. Thus the vaguely religious hos- tility to the operation does not at all mean that Christianity is really opposed to it. Being myself a devout Baptist, I've had some reason to think about the morality of the operation, more deeply perhaps than the 'religious element' at the hospital, more deeply than many who condemn out of hand. I do not assert my reasoning to be valid; indeed, I shall do no more than suggest the lines of such reasoning. Christian belief in the immortality of the soul does but strengthen the view that, if there is conflict between body and soul, the corruptible body cught to yield. Some have arg- ued that to remove organs is mutilation--but if thine eye offend thee..."? In truth, if the soul is feminine, this operation is a species of healing. But 11 this is an argument that need not be made; for nearly all Christians agree that man has free will to choose Heaven or Hell and the way thereto. When the hospital im- posed their religious views upon me, without so much as a call from the Chaplain to learn mine, they denied me the exercise of that free will.

And freedom, both religious and secular, was denied me, by that hospital specifically, and by every hospital tacitly, that refuses to allow the operation. It is necessary to be very clear about this. What is this freedom we cherish? Someone has said that to define freedom is to limit it, and to limit it is to de- stroy it. This is not quite true. There is one, and only one, necessary limit to freedom; one must not exercise it so as to in- fringe on the rights of others. Thus one may not put arsenic in the salad, or sell atomic secrets to smiling Soviets, or run down old ladies with one's car. There is no other rightful limitation of human freedom. As to defining freedom, it can be said at least that it is not a negative thing, not 'freedom to conform' or 'freedom from want'; a slave has those--and still he is unfree. Freedom is the right to choose, to act, to pursue one's happiness. "The philosophy of the First Amendment is that man must have full freedom to search the world and the universe for the answers to the puzzles of life"--so wrote one great jurist; and another: "The essence of an individual's freedom is the opportunity to de- viate (from the norm)"