Procreative beneficence and the prospective parent

Journal of Medical Ethics
Peter Herissone-Kelly

Abstract

Julian Savulescu has given clear expression to a principle-that of "procreative beneficence"-which underlies the thought of many contemporary writers on bioethics. The principle of procreative beneficence (PPB) holds that parents or single reproducers are at least prima facie obliged to select the child, out of a range of possible children they might have, who will be likely to lead the best life. My aim in this paper is to argue that prospective parents, just by dint of their being prospective parents, are in fact not obliged to act on PPB. That is, there is something about their filling the role of prospective parents that exempts them from selecting the child with the best life. I urge that it is more realistic to view prospective parents as bound by a principle of acceptable outlook, which holds that they ought not to select children whose lives will contain an unacceptable amount of suffering.

References

Sep 28, 2001·Journal of Medical Ethics·R Gillon
Dec 4, 2001·Journal of Medical Ethics·J Harris

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Citations

Mar 26, 2011·Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics : CQ : the International Journal of Healthcare Ethics Committees·Peter Herissone-Kelly
Aug 9, 2011·Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics : CQ : the International Journal of Healthcare Ethics Committees·Matti Hayry
Mar 29, 2012·The American Journal of Bioethics : AJOB·Inmaculada de Melo-Martín
Aug 3, 2012·The American Journal of Bioethics : AJOB·Robert Ranisch
May 15, 2008·Bioethics·Rebecca Bennett
Jan 1, 2010·Human Reproduction and Genetic Ethics·Peter F Omonzejele
Feb 14, 2014·Journal of Medical Ethics·Ben Saunders
May 31, 2018·Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics : CQ : the International Journal of Healthcare Ethics Committees·Sally Dalton-Brown
Nov 16, 2013·Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics : CQ : the International Journal of Healthcare Ethics Committees·Rebecca Bennett

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