My last posting was sloppy. From a reader, this clarification:

Dear Mr. Robinson,
I don’t disagree with you and Mgr. Lorenzo about the critical documents’ use or lack thereof of the word “person”.
But your closing paragraph is not specific enough, after all, skin cells and moles grown in a lab are also human life. What the combination of the sperm and egg produce is not merely human life, but a human life, indeed a complete though immature human being. As another noted Catholic thinker, Robert George (who you interviewed not so long ago) has written:
“With the fusion of sperm and ovum, or with the coming to be of a distinct and complete (though immature) human organism either by (identical) twinning or by cloning, there is present a distinct organism which will (unless prevented) actively develop himself or herself to a more mature stage as a member of the human species. This new organism directs its own growth, coordinating from within all of its elements and forces toward his or her own survival and maturation.”
I don’t think you disagree with this either, but I think it would clarify your critique of Linker’s execrable piece (or, rather, it might help ward off misconceptions of the Church that are so easily adopted).