I am glad that Mr. Wightman has achieved 94 years of age. I hope his trust in his family is fulfilled.
His demand that matters of foundational moral ethics be based on public opinion however most definitely shows a misplaced faith.
It is public opinion that has allowed uncountable ethically abominable episodes such as the Nazi holocaust.
In our own country we kill around 18,000 babies a year through abortion.
The staunchest pro-choice advocates called such a possibility ‘ridiculous propaganda' when more liberal laws were drafted several decades ago, these days the reality hardly bothers the general public. In Holland, the land of VE law he so admires they have in recent years been debating and drafting guidelines around the euthanasia of newborn infants. And so it goes.
The Church he so despises is the only organisation that for 2000 years has held to a consistent moral teaching regarding the sanctity of life.
I suggest he study it completely and fully come to understand what it means, says and does not say before attempting to ridicule it.

Mike Kuipers von Lande
Mt. Maunganui.