ABSTRACT
The decision as to whether or not to abort is often left entirely to the woman; the man has either been quick to abandon the scene, or closes up in passive silence. Anxieties and feelings of guilt are more rapidly repressed, but may possibly be more intense. The child that does not make it into the world represents different values for a man. First of all, the embryo is not a part of him, as it is of the mother. From the start, the embryo is an ‘other’ for a man: a different and separate being. So, the inhibition about killing that being is clearer. Men usually have few doubts that to abort is to kill.
