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The purpose of this essay is to set out an argument for the claim that abortion, except perhaps in rare instances, is seriously wrong. 1 One reason for these exceptions is to eliminate from consideration cases whose ethical analysis should be controversial and detailed for clearheaded opponents of abortion. Such cases include abortion after rape and abortion during the first fourteen days after conception when there is an argument that the fetus is not definitely an individual. Another reason for making these exceptions is to allow for those cases in which the permissibility of abortion is compatible with the argument of this essay. Such cases include abortion when continuation of a pregnancy endangers a woman’s life and abortion when the fetus is anencephalic. When I speak of the wrongness of abortion in this essay, a reader should presume the above qualifications. I mean by an abortion an action intended to bring about the death of a fetus for the sake of the woman who carries it.(Thus, as is standard on the literature on this subject, I eliminate spontaneous abortions from consideration.) I mean by a fetus a developing human being from the time of conception to the time of birth.(Thus, as is standard, I call embryos and zygotes, fetuses.) The argument of this essay will establish that abortion is wrong for the same reason as killing a reader of this