Citation

Rodger D, Blackshaw BP, Miller C. New Bioeth. 2018; 24(2): 106-121.

Affiliation

Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics , University of Oxford , Oxford , UK.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2018, Informa - Taylor and Francis Group)

DOI

10.1080/20502877.2018.1438771

PMID

29464993

Abstract

It is commonly argued that a serious right to life is grounded only in actual, relatively advanced psychological capacities a being has acquired. The moral permissibility of abortion is frequently argued for on these grounds. Increasingly it is being argued that such accounts also entail the permissibility of infanticide, with several proponents of these theories accepting this consequence. We show, however, that these accounts imply the permissibility of even more unpalatable acts than infanticide performed on infants: organ harvesting, live experimentation, sexual interference, and discriminatory killing. The stronger intuitions against the permissibility of these 'pre-personal acts' allow us to re-establish a comprehensive and persuasive reductio against psychological accounts of persons.

Language: en

Keywords

abortion; consent; harm; infanticide; personhood; persons; pre-personal acts; sex