A Modest Abortion Proposal

No, I'm not proposing eating fetuses!

The problem with abortion is that it’s a conflict between the interests of the fetus and the interests of the parent. But any good Coasian knows the solution to that. Here’s how we solve the problem. Keep abortion legal. However, allow people who would otherwise get an abortion to give their child up for adoption and get 10% of the child’s earnings. While the child may not want to take a 10% haircut, it’s certainly better than the 100% haircut of non-existence.

This would create an incentive for firms to pop up offering money to people in exchange for getting returns from the children. Thus, even if parents are risk averse, wise investors would invest in future people who will earn money. They might even have an incentive to pay for fancy classes for the children to boost future earnings.

Ask yourself, who is this bad for? The people who would have been aborted are better off as are the parents. It’s a win win! A pareto improvement. We need to bring both fetus and parent to the bargaining table.