mmitted
against minors. In the first place it is necessary to take into
account the special dangers they present, and in the second place, the
personality of the criminal, his capacity for repentance, improvement,
and self-control.

=Artificial Abortion.=--It is a difficult question to decide whether a
woman should have the right to dispose of the embryo she carries in
her womb, and the duties of society with regard to this question. It
is certainly the duty of society to protect the child as soon as it
is born. In this case the laws cannot be too severe in protecting the
child from unnatural parents, or from the "baby farmers," whose
business is to get rid of the infants by starving them or exposing
them to disease.

It is the same with analogous abuses which we have mentioned with
regard to civil law. These crimes or misdemeanors very often result as
much from the economic organization of our society, as from want of
protection for infancy and girl-mothers, as well as from the shame
with which the latter are branded by our hypocritical customs.

The question becomes more difficult with regard to the embryo _before
birth_. Should the law punish artificial abortion? Opinions on this
question vary. I have already said that in cases of rape, and forced
pregnancy in general, the right to artificial abortion should be
conceded to the woman. On the other hand, I think it should be
prohibited on principle when the fecundating coitus has been voluntary
on both sides, and when there is no medical reason for such a measure.
In principle, the human embryo, when once conceived, should have the
right to live. Birth is only an episode in its life. This generally
takes place at the end of the ninth lunar month of pregnancy, but a
child born at the seventh month is often viable. It is, therefore,
arbitrary not to recognize the right of the embryo to live. On the
contrary, the right that a woman has to dispose of her body would seem
to outweigh this, when conception has been imposed on her by stratagem
or violence. In fact, the right of the embryo to life should depend on
the wish of the bearers of each of the two germs by which it is
formed, at the moment of conception.

On the other hand, numerous exceptions to the above rule should be
allowed, and doctors should not be too severe, for it would be for
them to decide in most cases whether artificial abortion was licit or
not. Some pregnancies are a veritable misfortune for the pa