Gertrude Franklin Horn Atherton (1857-1946) was a prominent and prolific American author of novels, short stories, essays, and articles for magazines and newspapers on such issues as feminism, politics and war.

'The Greatest Good of the Greatest Number' (1905) tells the story of a doctor wrestling with the dilemma of allowing the drug-addicted wife of a close friend to die under his care, knowing that her passing would vastly improve the lives of his friend, their children, and the woman the husband would marry if his wife were gone.