adulthood. Most states, on the other hand, retained abortion rights throughout the life of the organism, this provision making it possible to rectify any later-discovered oversight or to counter any irrational sentimentality on the part of a conceiving or host mother. On some worlds, in deference to biological facts, fathers were also given abortion rights over the member of the species, whether it was within the body of a mother or in a vat, these rights again extending to a certain point in the life of the organism, coterminous with the point to which the mother’s rights, whether a conceiving or host mother, extended. The exercise of these rights did not require mutual agreement because that would, as various jurists had pointed out, infringe the rights of the other partner. None of this, of course, compromised the rights of the state, which in all cases, as was proper, given its greater amount of information, the longer, broader perspectives at its disposal, and its wisdom, took priority. In speaking of incorrigibility, and such, it might be mentioned that Brenner, whereas he tended on the whole to be a. morally responsible citizen of the home world, did not favor abortion. His view seemed officially to be predicated on a suspected inconsistency between the putative morality of aborting a member of his own species and the putative immorality of aborting a member of another species. This also seemed congruent, at least in his mind, incidentally, with the thesis of the equivalence of life forms, he supposing that a member of his own species, such as it was, ought to be entitled to the same rights as those accorded to, say, squirrels, rabbits, or terbits. On the other hand, one suspects his views may also have been influenced by the fact that he had discovered, at the age of some twenty Commonworld years, that he himself had narrowly escaped abortion. Indeed, a vat attendant had refused to flush out the vat and place the fetus in the garbage. And, as Brenner was pleased that he had not been aborted, he tended to disapprove of abortion, in spite of its putative convenience to one party or another. To be sure, Brenner seldom expressed his reservations on these matters, which was perhaps just as well.
“You do not think then,” said Brenner, peering off through the rain in the direction in which the young woman had taken her way, picking her way through the mud with her bare feet, “that she is a “mate.”” He shuddered a little as he said that word, with its disgusting aspects of salaciousness.
“I would not suppose so, not here,” said Rodriguez.
For some reason Brenner was pleased with this speculation on the part of Rodriguez. Upon considering this, Brenner speculated that his relief must be due to the fact that the young woman was spared at least an implication in a relationship so carnal and deplorable, so antithetical to personness.
“But what then?” asked Brenner. He was dimly aware of an odd sense of expectation, or hopefulness, even an unworthy, excited hopefulness, in himself as he asked this question.
“Who knows?” asked Rodriguez.
“What do you think?” asked Brenner.
“She was barefoot,” mused Rodriguez.
“Yes?” said Brenner.
“Did you get a look at her neck, or her left wrist?” asked Rodriguez.
“Not really,” said Brenner.
“I didn’t notice any chain or anklet on her left ankle,” said Rodriguez.
“‘Chain’? ‘Anklet’?” said Brenner.
“To be sure,” said Rodriguez, “such would have to be dried, and cleaned, very carefully, if it were worn in this weather, in the rain and mud. It could, of course, have been removed, before she was sent on her errand.”
“An errand?” asked Brenner.
“One supposes so,” said Rodriguez. “This is hardly the sort of weather in which one would be likely to make social calls.”
“What is she?” asked Brenner.
“I don’t know,” said Rodriguez.
“Is she a—slave?” asked Brenner.
“Quite unlikely, for a number of reasons,” said Rodriguez. “First, she was angry when you obstructed her passage, when you struck into one another, and even cried out in anger, or made some sort of angry noise. It is highly unlikely that a slave would have done that. A slave might rather have been terrified that she might have been found displeasing. A slave would have been down on her knees or belly in the mud, in an instant, contrite and fearful, begging your forgiveness, perhaps trying to placate you by licking the mud from your boots. She would not wish to be beaten.”
“Men have such power over slaves?” asked Brenner, in awe.
“Of course,”