William R. LaFleur is the E. Dale Saunders professor in Japanese Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. He is the author of Liquid Life: Abortion and Buddhism in Japan (Princeton, 1992). The complete letter, “Ending Fecundism: An Open Letter to Pope John Paul II Concerning Contraception, Religion, and Ecology,” presented in 1996 at a conference at Harvard University, is available at www.tricycle.com.