Legality equals morality. This is the construct that Colin Byrne would have us believe is the root of our moral structure ("Morals reflect society, are not a part of nature," Nov. 10). From his letter, he demonstrates a fundamental misunderstanding of how morality works, let alone how we as a society deal with it. He says, "Morals, rights and wrongs, are as socially constructed as the laws that we abide by, or try to change."

If this quote were true, slavery would have been morally acceptable because it was the legal. I am sure Byrne does not look at our country's history and argue that slave owners were morally right to own slaves. Rather, they were legally right as it was legal, but not morally right.

Quite simply, legality and morality are not one in the same. Neither does one dictate the other. There are times when the moral action is illegal or legal action is immoral. A simple and facile evaluation of even our own history reveals this truth.