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WHY MEN ARE HANGED
birth or to prevent it from being born, should be encouraged by the custodians of social morality.
The legal attitude towards abortion is utterly incomprehensible. Until the child is born, it has no existence, socially. So, the question of murder or homicidc does not arise at all. An act concerning something which is not a part of society, cannot be interpreted as an offence against society ; therefore, it does not come under the purview of law's which are meant to punish offenders agains socicty. Moreover, until it is dclivered, the child i: a part of the mother's body-her property in the physical as well as in the productive sense. Ownership carries with it the right of disposition. Law' does not punish a woman for burning to ashes 3 pearl necklace legitimately belonging to her. But in puts her in prison if she chooses to destroy an embryo in her womb which is her private possession more intimately than the necklace. Is it not senseless ? It is as ridiculous as to punish one for inflicting a wound on his body. Before the child acquires the double position-child of its parents and an incipient social unit-it entirely belongs to the mother. Therefore, by punishing abortion, criminal law contradicts its own fundamental principle. It penalises the exercise of the right of ownership precisely in such a case wherein this is acquired naturally, and therefore inalienable. Before the child is born, it does not exist socially ; so, society has no call to take it under protection.
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