Margaret Olivia Little Essay

Though more permissible in the early periods than in the late, it should still be permissible and can even be honorable

We feel worse about a miscarriage that happens in the 5th month than one that happened in the 1st month

Killing by defn is not what happens in abortion b/c the fetus is not any worse than it would have otherwise been without you (pg 30 in essay). It’s more like letting die. You are taking away something he wouldn’t have had to begin with. You are not violating their right to life. This is because a characteristic of killing is that it interferes in a way that makes someone worse off than he or she would have otherwise been.

But the mother is not making the fetus worse off than he or she would have otherwise been, since if it were not for the mother, the fetus would not have existed at all.

Motherhood is such a personal, intimate thing and it changes your life so much that you should not be required to go thru it if you don’t want to. Analogy- you can’t be forced to marry someone you don’t want to. A women shouldn’t be forced to continue with pregnancies if you don’t want to. Like marriage, it’s a very intimate matter.

(36) “It’s more a refusal to create than a decision to destroy.”

She tries to support this argument by an analogy with the typical Victorian novel example of someone who is being pressured to marry for money. Little argues that just as one should not be obligated to do so, so a woman should not be obligated to make a great sacrifice for her fetus/potential child.