NONFICTION - Jan. 13, 1991

NOBODY’S BUSINESS by Alida Brill ( Addison Wesley : $17.95 ; 190 pp .). Alida Brill, author of a previous book on civil liberties, here addresses our right to privacy by analyzing the effects of landmark legal rulings. She sees the beginning of today’s abortion-rights struggle lurking in the language of the Roe decision, which protected a woman’s right to choose an abortion in consultation with her doctor--but did not safeguard her right to privacy. Under Roe, women can have an abortion if they can find a doctor they can afford to perform the procedure; privacy in this case is a middle-class luxury, one that poor women are denied. The author also addresses, and condemns, the controversial practice of “outing,” or announcing the homosexual preferences of a closeted gay, in a pithy little essay that suggests that privacy for all takes precedence over pride for any single segment of society. Among the other topics she takes up are “Dr. Death” and his suicide machine, where she comes down on the side of increased end-of-life options (though she’s not quite sure what they should be). Brill is an articulate, persuasive writer; the only likely problem is that those who already agree with Brill will read, and nod, and those who find her position offensive will refuse even to take a look.