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Infanticide and moral consistency.

Jeff McMahan1

  • 1Department of Philosophy, Rutgers, 1 Seminary Place, New Brunswick, NJ 08901, USA. mcmahan@philosophy.rutgers.edu

Journal of Medical Ethics
|May 3, 2013
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Exploring the morality of infanticide reveals no simple answers. Commonly held moral beliefs supporting practices like abortion and animal killing challenge the idea that infanticide is always wrong, leading to counterintuitive conclusions.

Keywords:
AbortionEmbryos and FetusesPhilosophical EthicsQuality/Value of Life/Personhood

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Area of Science:

  • Bioethics
  • Moral Philosophy

Background:

  • The absolute moral prohibition of infanticide is widely accepted.
  • Commonly held moral beliefs often support practices such as abortion and the killing of animals.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To demonstrate the lack of easy moral options regarding the permissibility of infanticide.
  • To analyze the compatibility of absolute anti-infanticide stances with other widely shared moral beliefs.

Main Methods:

  • Philosophical analysis of ethical principles.
  • Examination of moral consistency across different practices (abortion, infanticide, animal killing).

Main Results:

  • The belief that infanticide is always morally wrong is difficult to reconcile with other accepted moral views.
  • Achieving moral consistency requires accepting potentially counterintuitive beliefs.

Conclusions:

  • There are no straightforward moral justifications for rejecting infanticide in all circumstances.
  • Ethical frameworks addressing abortion, infanticide, and animal ethics necessitate nuanced and potentially counterintuitive positions.