Time-relative interests and abortion

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

The concept of a time-relative interest is introduced by Jeff McMahan to solve certain puzzles about the badness of death. Some people (e.g. McMahan and David DeGrazia) believe that this concept can also be used to show that abortion is permissible. In this paper, I first argue that if the Time-Relative Interest Account permits abortion, then it would also permit infanticide. I next reject the suggestion that the Time-Relative Interest Account can at least explain the permissibility of early abortion, even if it cannot explain the permissibility of late abortion. Given this, early and late abortions have to be justified on other grounds.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)242-256
Number of pages15
JournalJournal of Moral Philosophy
Volume4
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - 2007

Keywords

  • Abortion
  • Foetus
  • Infanticide
  • Killing
  • Time-relative interest

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Philosophy

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