SIDNEY CALLAHAN AND DANIEL CALLAHAN This book, like many other things to
do with abortion, is a product of long controversy. Though carried out
with cooperation, it was conceived in conflict. The conflict between the
coeditors has per- sisted for years-in fact, for at least half of their
thirty-year marriage. One, Sidney, is prolife; the other, Daniel, is
prochoice. Ever since the topic of abortion became of professional
interest to us, in the 1960s, we have disagreed. At one time, while
Daniel was writing a book on the subject, Abortion: Law, Choice and
Morality (1970), we talked about the subject every day for the four
years of the book's gestation. On many occasions during the 1970s,
prolife articles writ- ten by Sidney were passed out at Daniel's
lectures in order to refute his pro choice views. Over the years, every
argument, every statistic, every historical example cited in the
literature has been discussed by the two of us. As Eliza Doolittle says
about "words" in My Fair Lady, "There's nota one I haven't heard. " And
yet we still disagree. How can it be, we ask ourselves, that intelligent
people of goodwill who know all the same facts and all the same
arguments still come down on different sides of the con- troversy? As we
well know, it is possible to agree about many things and have great love
and respect for an opponent, and still differ.