MIT OpenCourseWare http ocw mit edu 24 06J STS 006J Bioethics Spring 2009 For information about citing these materials or our Terms of Use visit http ocw mit edu terms 24 06 STS 006 Bioethics R07 TA Daniel Hagen Recitation 07 The Non Identity Problem 1 Mary the impatient mother Mary has a medical condition but wants very much to become pregnant If she conceives now she will have an unhealthy child But if she waits two months and then conceives she will have a healthy child Mary is impatient and conceives a child now This child Mariette is unhealthy but nevertheless has a life worth living if asked whether she would prefer to have never been born at all Mariette says no 2 A paradox P1 If you don t harm anybody then you don t do anything wrong P2 Mary doesn t harm anybody P3 Mary does something wrong C Mary does and doesn t do something wrong This is a valid argument But the conclusion is contradictory So we must reject a premise 3 Rejecting P3 Mary does not do anything wrong She may conceive a child now even though she knows that she will conceive an unhealthy child Challenge explain away the strong intuition that Mary did something wrong 4 Rejecting P2 Mary does harm someone Option 1 Mary harms Mariette Option 2 Mary harms someone else But Harming implies making worse o Par t p 374 So who was made worse o 5 Rejecting P1 even if you don t harm anybody you may still do something wrong Challenge provide an alternative principle that explains the wrongness of Mary s action One option The Same Number Quality Claim Par t p 360 But what about when we have di erent numbers as in Risky Policy cases Two options The Impersonal Total Principle Par t p 387 This implies The Repugnant Conclusion Par t p 388 The Impersonal Average Principle Par t p 386 This has its own problems presented in lecture 1
View Full Document
Unlocking...