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- Title
PRESENT DUTIES AND FUTURE PERSONS: WHEN ARE EXISTENCE-INDUCING ACTS WRONG?
- Authors
Roberts, Melinda A.
- Abstract
This article presents circumstances where existence-inducing acts are morally wrong or right. The primary purpose of this paper is to determine whether it is plausible to maintain that in some but not other cases, a morally questionable act can be justified, or excused, or defended, by appeal to the fact that it is existence-inducing. Gregory Kavka, Derek Parfit and Matthew Hanser are surely correct to condemn the agents' acts in the slave child, pleasure pill and risk policy cases. It aims to show how their judgments can be accepted in these cases, without condemning the agents' acts in cases like the intended deficit case and the wrongful life case through the use of the exculpatory principle. It is important to note that some morally questionable acts are causally related to the existence of the individual who claims harm and some are not. This distinction is important for the purposes of this paper. This paper is solely concerned with the moral status of acts that are causally related to the existence of particular individuals, for it is only in connection with such acts that the line of argument in this paper becomes cogent. Specifically, this paper will focus on risky policies and the taking of pleasure pill.
- Subjects
ETHICS; HUMAN acts (Ethics); KAVKA, Gregory; PARFIT, Derek, 1942-2017; HANSER, Matthew; RIGHT &; wrong
- Publication
Law & Philosophy, 1995, Vol 14, Issue 3/4, p297
- ISSN
0167-5249
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1007/BF01000703