Related Experiment Video
Updated: Feb 14, 2026

A View of Their Own: Capturing the Egocentric View of Infants and Toddlers with Head-Mounted Cameras
Published on: October 5, 2018
Beyond Infanticide: How Psychological Accounts of Persons Can Justify Harming Infants
Daniel Rodger1, Bruce P Blackshaw2, Calum Miller3
1a School of Health and Social Care , London South Bank University , London , UK.
Abstract:
It is commonly argued that a serious right to life is grounded only in actual, relatively advanced psychological capacities a being has acquired. The moral permissibility of abortion is frequently argued for on these grounds. Increasingly it is being argued that such accounts also entail the permissibility of infanticide, with several proponents of these theories accepting this consequence. We show, however, that these accounts imply the permissibility of even more unpalatable acts than infanticide performed on infants: organ harvesting, live experimentation, sexual interference, and discriminatory killing. The stronger intuitions against the permissibility of these 'pre-personal acts' allow us to re-establish a comprehensive and persuasive reductio against psychological accounts of persons.
Related Concept Videos
Introduction to Personality Psychology
Early Theories of Personality
The study of...
Defining Psychology
Psychology as a Science
The scientific method in psychology involves six critical steps: making observations, formulating hypotheses, conducting tests, analyzing...
Freudian Psychology
Gestalt Psychology
Humanistic Psychology
This approach...

