LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN

(German composer, 1770-1827)

One doctor to another:

I want your opinion about the termination of a pregnancy. The father was syphilitic. The mother was tubercular. Of the four children already born, the first was blind, the second died, the third was deaf and dumb, the fourth was also tubercular. What would you have done?

The second doctor replied, "I would have ended the pregnancy."

The first doctor said, "Then you would have murdered Beethoven."

Author unknown.