Abstract
Having been charmed by previous science meditations written by popular science writer and physicist James Trefil, I was anxious to read his contribution to the abortion debate written in collaboration with his colleague, biologist Harold Morowitz. Setting out to provide a summary of current scientific literature relevant to the abortion issue, the authors argue from paleontology, evolutionary history, developmental biology, neurobiology, and neonatology that abortion on demand up to the twenty-fifth week of gestation is legitimate because it is around this point in fetal development that humanness is acquired.