Are You Ready for Killing Babies? Because the Philosophers Are! By Mrs Vera West

     Saying controversial and soften stupid things seems to be what academic philosophers do, as far as I can work out. No, they are not modern Socrates, willing to die for truth and justice. Why some even want certain people to die:
https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/national/abortion-outrage-mums-should-be-allowed-to-terminate-newborns-say-australian-academics/news-story/05da73dcef423139d0b5003ca8d05346?sv=910d80d46c0eb27cf2ea2ab7e9dfb7a3

“KILLING newborn babies should be allowed if the mother wishes, Australian philosophers have argued in a prestigious journal. Their argument, that it is morally the same as abortion, has forced the British Medical Journal to defend its publication of their views. In an article that has sparked outrage around the world and elicited death threats, Monash and Melbourne University academics argue that a foetus and a newborn both lack a sense of life and aspiration. They argue this justifies "after-birth abortion" on the proviso it is painless as the baby is not missing out on a life it cannot contemplate. The doctors of philosophy argue in the BMJ publication Journal of Medical Ethics that one-third of infants with Down syndrome are not diagnosed in the womb, which means mothers of children with severe disabilities should have the chance to end a child's life after, as well as before, birth.

However, the pair also want the principle of killing newborns extended to healthy babies, because a mother who is unwilling to care for it outweighs an infant's right to life. In the article, After-birth abortion: why should the baby live?, the authors argue: "A serious philosophical problem arises when the same conditions that would have justified abortion become known after birth. In such cases, we need to assess facts in order to decide whether the same arguments that apply to killing a human fetus can also be consistently applied to killing a newborn human."

The title of the paper is “After-Birth Abortion: Why Should the Baby Live?” by Alberto Giubilini and Francesca Minerva in the Journal of Medical Ethics, way back in 2013. I have not seen anything new along these lines in recent times, so presumably this was a testing of the waters.

 

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Friday, 29 March 2024

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