ISSUES IN BIOMEDICAL ETHICS Moral Status prelims 6/30/97 2:32 PM Page i ISSUES IN BIOMEDICAL ETHICS General Editors John Harris and Søren Holm Consulting Editors Ranaan Gillon and Bonnie Steinbock The late twentieth century has witnessed dramatic technological develop- ments in biomedical science and the delivery of health care, and these devel- opments have brought with them important social changes. All too often ethical analysis has lagged behind these changes. The purpose of this series is to provide lively, up-to-date, and authoritative studies for the increasingly large and diverse readership concerned with issues in biomedical ethics— not just healthcare trainees and professionals, but also philosophers, social scientists, lawyers, social workers, and legislators. The series wll feature both single-author and multi-author books, short and accessible enough to be widely read, each of them focused on an issue of outstanding current importance and interest. Philosophers, doctors, and lawyers from a number of countries feature among the authors lined up for the series. prelims 6/30/97 2:32 PM Page ii Moral Status MARY ANNE WARREN CLARENDON PRESS · OXFORD 1997 Obligations to Persons and Other Living Things prelims 6/30/97 2:32 PM Page iii Oxford University Press, Great Clarendon Street, Oxford Oxford New York Athens Auckland Bangkok Bogota Bombay Buenos Aires Calcutta Cape Town Dar es Salaam Delhi Florence Hong Kong Istanbul Karachi Kuala Lumpur Madras Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Nairobi Paris Singapore Taipei Tokyo Toronto and associated companies in Berlin Ibadan Oxford is a trade mark of Oxford University Press Published in the United States by Oxford University Press Inc., New York © Mary Anne Warren 1997 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press. Within the UK, exceptions are allowed in respect of any fair dealing for the purpose of research or private study, or criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, or in the case of reprographic reproduction in accordance with the terms of the licences issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside these terms and in other countries should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the address above. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Data available Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Warren, Mary Anne Moral status / Mary Anne Warren. (Issues in biomedical ethics) Includes bibliographical references. 1. Euthanasia—Moral and ethical aspects. 2. Abortion—Moral and ethical aspects. 3. Animal rights. 4. Duty. I. Title. II. Series. R725.5.W37 1997 179.7—dc21 97–7803 ISBN 0 –19–823668–9 13579108642 Typeset by Invisible Ink Printed in Great Britain on acid-free paper by Biddles Ltd., Guildford and King’s Lynn prelims 6/30/97 2:32 PM Page iv My thanks go, first, to my spouse, Michael Scriven, who has pro- vided moral support and valuable critical responses. Next, to the students and colleagues at San Francisco State University who have shared with me their thoughts about the ethical issues addressed here. Dianne Romain, Laura Purdy, Rita Manning, and other friends in the Society for Women in Philosophy have supported and encouraged me for many years. I owe special philosophical debts to Michael Tooley, Peter Singer, Mary Midgley, and J. Baird Callicott, whose moral philosophies taught me much, even while inspiring disagreement on some points. Professor Tooley was head of the Philosophy Department at the University of Western Australia when Michael and I went there in 1982, and I benefited from the opportunity to compare our approaches to the problem of moral status. In 1986, I spent some time at the Centre for Human Bioethics at Monash University, which Professor Singer directed, and where some of the ideas for this book were hatched and tested. Professor Midgley was also a great source of inspiration. In 1990, she came to San Francisco State to speak at the conference on animal rights that I helped to orga- nize; our conversations revealed similarities in our viewpoints that helped to persuade me that I was on the right track. Professor Callicott has been kind enough to give critical attention to my past work, which has helped me to clarify my views. Finally, I am grateful to the two anonymous readers at Oxford University Press, whose comments substantially improved the book; and to my editors, John Harris, Peter Momtchiloff, and Angela Blackburn, for their assistance and support. Acknowledgements prelims 6/30/97 2:32 PM Page v prelims 6/30/97 2:32 PM Page vi Part I: An Account of Moral Status 1 1. The Concept of Moral Status 3 2. Reverence for Life 24 3. Sentience and the Utilitarian Calculus 50 4. Personhood and Moral Rights 90 5. The Relevance of Relationships 122 6. A Multi-Criterial Analysis of Moral Status 148 Part II: Selected Applications 179 7. Applying the Principles 181 8. Euthanasia and the Moral Status of Human Beings 185 9. Abortion and Human Rights 201 10. Animal Rights and Human Limitations 224 11. Conclusion 241 Bibliography 243 Index 255 Contents prelims 6/30/97 2:32 PM Page vii prelims 6/30/97 2:32 PM Page viii An Account of Moral Status PART I chap. 1 4/30/97 2:44 PM Page 1 chap. 1 4/30/97 2:44 PM Page 2 [...]...chap 1 4/30/97 2:44 PM Page 3 1 The Concept of Moral Status This is a philosophical exploration of the concept of moral status To have moral status is to be morally considerable, or to have moral standing It is to be an entity towards which moral agents have, or can have, moral obligations If an entity has moral status, then we may not treat it in just any way we please; we are morally obliged... to themselves—are morally obliged to do so Thus, one important feature of the concept of moral status is its generality Moral status is usually ascribed to members of a group, rather than merely to specific individuals Moreover, it is usually ascribed on the 6 B F Skinner, Beyond Freedom and Dignity (New York: Bantam Books, 19 71) chap 1 4/30/97 2:44 PM Page 10 10 An Account of Moral Status basis of some... as the moral status that an entity has, or ought to have, for all moral agents Nothing has moral status except in the context of a culture wherein it is accorded moral status by a majority of persons; and the moral status that it has within each such culture is merely that which the majority of persons within the culture currently believe it to have Finally, moral subjectivists hold that all moral claims,... 2 See Thomas H Birch, Moral Considerability and Universal Consideration’, Environmental Ethics, 15 , No 4 (Winter 19 93), 313 –32 chap 1 4/30/97 2:44 PM Page 6 6 An Account of Moral Status beings have full moral status, while inanimate objects normally have none—are a reflection of overweening human pride Ethical egoists reject the presumption that all human beings have moral status for a different reason... twilight zone; their moral status was debated, but agreed by chap 1 4/30/97 2:44 PM Page 15 The Concept of Moral Status 15 most learned men to be lower than that of free male citizens Today foetuses, animals, biological species, and ecosystems occupy a similar twilight zone Wildly diverse claims are made about their moral status Each group has its partisans, who ascribe strong moral status to the entities... possession of moral status In each case, I argue that while the property in question is sufficient for a particular type of moral status, treating it as the sole criterion of moral status leads to consequences that are intuitively implausible and pragmatically unacceptable Chapter 2 examines the ethic of Reverence for Life developed by chap 1 4/30/97 2:44 PM Page 18 18 An Account of Moral Status Albert... of moral status to establish moral floors rather than moral ideals, we will be more likely to have a tolerant attitude towards such controversial practices, viewing them as possibly falling below the moral ideal, but as nevertheless often within the bounds of the morally permissible 1. 6 Current Controversies about Moral Status In classical Greek thought, women, slaves, and barbarians occupied a moral. .. major positions on current issues that relate to moral status, outline the book’s chapters, and preview some of its conclusions The chapter closes with chap 1 4/30/97 2:44 PM Page 4 4 An Account of Moral Status two responses to what is probably the most common objection to the type of account that I defend 1. 1 Moral Status as an Intuitive Concept Is it morally wrong to take a stone and grind it into... Oxford University Press, 19 92 chap 1 4/30/97 2:44 PM Page 16 16 An Account of Moral Status development, do not yet have full moral status They contend, further, that women cannot be equal and responsible members of the human moral community if they are denied the right to terminate unwanted or abnormal pregnancies, for what they themselves believe to be sufficiently good reasons .14 Meanwhile, another... cases See P S Martin, ‘The Discovery of America’, Science, 17 9 (19 73), 968–74 It has also been suggested that human migrations caused the extinctions by spreading pathogenic micro-organisms; see Carl Zimmer, ‘Carriers of Extinction’, Discover, 16 , No 7 (July 19 95), 28–34 chap 1 4/30/97 2:44 PM Page 12 12 An Account of Moral Status sources .10 Nevertheless, while human beings have probably never been . Analysis of Moral Status 14 8 Part II: Selected Applications 17 9 7. Applying the Principles 18 1 8. Euthanasia and the Moral Status of Human Beings 18 5 9. Abortion and Human Rights 2 01 10. Animal. York: Bobbs-Merrill, 19 71) , 11 –57. 2 See Thomas H. Birch, Moral Considerability and Universal Consideration’, Environmental Ethics, 15 , No. 4 (Winter 19 93), 313 –32. chap. 1 4/30/97 2:44 PM Page. of Moral Status 1 1. The Concept of Moral Status 3 2. Reverence for Life 24 3. Sentience and the Utilitarian Calculus 50 4. Personhood and Moral Rights 90 5. The Relevance of Relationships 12 2 6.