{"id":3710,"date":"2020-04-09T04:39:48","date_gmt":"2020-04-09T03:39:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/?p=3710"},"modified":"2020-04-09T04:39:48","modified_gmt":"2020-04-09T03:39:48","slug":"why-a-relational-account-cannot-rule-out-infanticide-if-abortion-is-permissible","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/2020\/04\/09\/why-a-relational-account-cannot-rule-out-infanticide-if-abortion-is-permissible\/","title":{"rendered":"Why a relational account cannot rule out infanticide if abortion is permissible"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Bruce Blackshaw and Daniel Rodger<\/p>\n

It is widely recognised that late-term fetuses and infants differ little in features that are thought to be morally relevant such as consciousness and rationality. This poses a problem for ethicists who argue for the permissibility of abortion but wish to rule out infanticide. Some just bite the bullet\u2014Alberto Giubilini and Francesca Minerva famously argued<\/a> that infanticide should be permitted in all cases that abortion was permitted. But for many ethicists, endorsing the permissibility of infanticide is a step they are not willing to take, for obvious reasons\u2014most people find the idea horrifying.<\/p>\n

We have written on this topic previously<\/a>, arguing that certain accounts of moral status justify not only infanticide, but even more horrendous acts such as organ harvesting and experimentation. So, we read Prabhpal Singh\u2019s relational account of moral status<\/a> with interest to see whether he had come up with a viable solution to this conundrum. Unfortunately, we conclude that he has not\u2014just as late-term fetuses differ little from infants in their morally relevant features, we argue that they differ little in the relational features that form the basis of Singh\u2019s account. While birth marks an important change in the parental relationship, it does not mark its beginning.<\/p>\n

This means the task of justifying abortion without permitting infanticide (based on moral status) remains. In our view, a more plausible approach is to bite the bullet in the other direction\u2014to accept that if infanticide is seriously immoral, then we need to reconsider whether abortion should be regarded similarly.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Paper title<\/strong>: Parental Responsibilities and Moral Status<\/a><\/p>\n

Author(s):<\/strong> Bruce Blackshaw and Daniel Rodger<\/p>\n

Affiliations<\/strong>: University of Birmingham and London South Bank University<\/p>\n

Competing interests<\/strong>: None declared.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Bruce Blackshaw and Daniel Rodger It is widely recognised that late-term fetuses and infants differ little in features that are thought to be morally relevant such as consciousness and rationality. This poses a problem for ethicists who argue for the permissibility of abortion but wish to rule out infanticide. Some just bite the bullet\u2014Alberto […]<\/p>\n

Read More…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":353,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8059,968,8050],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3710","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-abortion","category-clinical-ethics","category-death-and-or-dying"],"yoast_head":"\nWhy a relational account cannot rule out infanticide if abortion is permissible - Journal of Medical Ethics blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/2020\/04\/09\/why-a-relational-account-cannot-rule-out-infanticide-if-abortion-is-permissible\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Why a relational account cannot rule out infanticide if abortion is permissible - Journal of Medical Ethics blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Bruce Blackshaw and Daniel Rodger It is widely recognised that late-term fetuses and infants differ little in features that are thought to be morally relevant such as consciousness and rationality. 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