A few months ago I read John Galsworthy’s classic, Nobel-prize-winning Forsyte Saga. In this book written a century ago, there is an amazing scene where the main character is forced to choose between saving his wife, and saving the perfectly viable fetus. When he chooses the fetus over his wife, the doctor is absolutely shocked. It is clear that any decent man would kill the fetus, even at this late stage, to keep his wife alive. It is NOT presented in any way as a good moment for the husband.

I thought that, thanks to the “pro-life” movement, we have regressed considerably from 1920. The way the dilemma is presented in this novel is SO different from how it would be portrayed today. Then, the woman was clearly the priority, the full human being. The husband only chooses for the fetus because he does not like his wife much; and basically the doctor thinks of that as murder, while killing the fetus to save the woman would have been honorable.

It kind of blew my mind, really. I keep thinking about it, and how warped we have become.