Beyond infanticide: How psychological accounts of persons justify harming infants

Journal article

Rodger, D, Blackshaw, B and Miller, C (2018). Beyond infanticide: How psychological accounts of persons justify harming infants. The New Bioethics. https://doi.org/10.1080/20502877.2018.1438771
AuthorsRodger, D, Blackshaw, B and Miller, C
Abstract

This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis Group in New Bioethics on 21/02/2018, available online: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/20502877.2018.1438771?jo...

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.

KeywordsInfanticide; Persons; Personhood; Pre-personal Acts; Sex; Harm; Consent; Abortion
Year2018
JournalThe New Bioethics
PublisherRoutledge (Taylor & Francis Group)
ISSN2050-2877
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)https://doi.org/10.1080/20502877.2018.1438771
Publication dates
Print21 Feb 2018
Publication process dates
Deposited12 Feb 2018
Accepted06 Feb 2018
Accepted author manuscript
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Open
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