NONFICTION - Nov. 29, 1992

THE FACTS OF LIFE by Harold Morowitz and James Trefil (Oxford University Press: $19.95; 179 pp.) This is a remarkable book on several levels, not the least of which is that Morowitz and Trefil are scientists and science writers who write in an accessible, provocative and wonderfully frank way about a difficult subject--abortion. Both men are classically pro-choice, in the Roe v. Wade model, which means they believe in a woman’s right to choose until the third trimester, at which point both her rights and those of the fetus must be taken into consideration. But they base their position on pure science, stripped of emotion and exaggeration. They embrace the concept of “humanness,” which occurs in the seventh month of pregnancy when the fetus possesses a highly developed cerebral cortex. The human brain distinguishes us from other life forms, and its development coincides with the fetus’ ability to survive outside the womb. Medical technology has so far been unable to push back to an earlier date the point at which a premature infant can survive--and although the occasional exception fuels the anti-abortionist’s fire, and ire, the authors refuse to be swayed by exceptions that, they believe, prove the rule. A painful book to read, but an essential piece of literature, if for nothing but its scientific rebuttal to the anti-abortion film “The Silent Scream.”