Graduation Date
5-2013
Document Type
Master's Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Arts
Department or Program
Graduate Humanities
Department or Program Chair
Laura Stivers, PhD
First Reader
Judy Halebsky, PhD
Second Reader
Joan Baranow, PhD
Abstract
The issue of abortion touches deep emotions in individuals and continues to be a controversial topic in the United States. The Right to Life movement believes strongly that life begins at conception, and to abort an unborn fetus is an act of murder. The supporters of the Pro-Choice movement, however, believe that a woman has the right to choose what happens with her body, and this takes precedence over other considerations. This work of fiction uses the above controversy as its framework. The primary narrator is a fetus in utero who tells the story of how his father and mother arrive at his conception, and how their complicated circumstances threaten his future birth. These are the first five chapters of a larger work in progress, and thus deal with exposition and the development of the protagonist, Daniel Ernst, the father of the narrator and a very confused human being.