answer:I don’t think you actually understand the attitude you are asking about. You hear someone make a comparison between a fetus and a parasite and you automatically think of it in negative terms, but that is an utter misunderstanding. When people make that comparison, they’re not saying that fetuses are necessarily bad. They’re saying that we have the same moral duties towards a fetus as we have towards a parasite (in other words, none at all). And on the flip side, someone can think of their pregnancy or their child as a negative event in their life even if they don’t think that a fetus is morally equivalent to a parasite. There are plenty of unhappy mothers who didn’t abort for fear that a blastula is somehow capable of having a soul and/or moral rights. So unless you’ve done a terrible job of wording your question, it looks like you are conflating two very different scenarios. With that out of the way, let’s look at each scenario. My mother definitely believes that a fetus is just a clump of cells with no moral rights, and it hasn’t done anything to dampen my self-esteem. Just because a fetus might be morally equivalent to a parasite (and, in some ways, acts like a parasite with regard to how it depends on its host for survival) doesn’t make something bad. Some people ingest parasites on purpose, and some people get pregnant on purpose. If they’re doing it because they want to do it, then it’s a good thing. But now let’s look at the other side. I grew up with a guy whose mother was very vocally anti-abortion and who went on and on about how every sperm is sacred. She definitely didn’t think that a fetus was just a clump of cells, but she also was pretty adamant that getting pregnant young was a terrible thing that ruined lives. But here’s the thing—she got pregnant (very) young. So it wasn’t a big step for her son to conclude that he had ruined his mother’s life. That took a huge toll on the guy and probably contributed a lot to his eventual suicide. This is all anecdotal, but I would conclude that self-esteem is less about how much value your parents ascribe to fetuses in theory and more about how they treat you in practice.