In every human society procreation is a matter of basic concern. In Confucian China, this concern was sanctified by the cult of ancestor worship into the very basis of morality; the inability to provide one's ancestors with a male heir to continue the line was the gravest failure in a man's performance of his filial duty. At the same time, traditional Chinese law gave wide power to parents over their offspring, culminating in the Qing Code grant of power, in effect, over life and death. Infanticide also was not prohibited.1 Thus the obsession to possess was coupled with an almost absolute power (and often readiness) to dispose. Both have been swept away by the social revolution over the past century. In this light it is interesting to explore the changes in Chinese law on the subject of abortion from imperial times to the present day. These changes reflect the transformations in the Chinese views of human life, social organization, and the status of women. By comparison with the treatment of the subject in Western law, the following questions are posed: What constitutes a legal offense of abortion? Is abortion considered homicide? Who is liable to be punished for the offense, and how severely? What is the legal status of the foetus? Finally, whom (or what) does the abortion law protect? Consideration of these questions will bring the discussion beyond law into the realms of medicine and Weltanschauungen.