Schrödinger’s fetus examined

Bruce P. Blackshaw

doi:10.1007/s11019-019-09936-0

Schrödinger’s fetus examined

Bruce P. Blackshaw

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Abstract

Joona Räsänen has proposed a concept he calls Schrödinger’s Fetus as a solution to reconciling what he believes are two widely held but contradictory intuitions. I show that Elizabeth Harman’s Actual Future Principle, upon which Schrödinger’s Fetus is based, uses a more convincing account of personhood. I also argue that both Räsänen and Harman, by embracing animalism, weaken their arguments by allowing Don Marquis’ ‘future like ours’ argument for the immorality of abortion into the frame.

Original language	English
Journal	Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy
Early online date	13 Dec 2019
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1007/s11019-019-09936-0
Publication status	E-pub ahead of print - 13 Dec 2019

Keywords

Abortion
Fetus
Person
Actual future principle
Future like ours

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Blackshaw_2019_Schrödingers_fetus_examined_Medicine_Health_Care_and_PhilosophyFinal published version, 497 KBLicence: Creative Commons: Attribution (CC BY)

http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11019-019-09936-0Licence: Creative Commons: Attribution (CC BY)

Cite this

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title = "Schr{\"o}dinger{\textquoteright}s fetus examined",

abstract = "Joona R{\"a}s{\"a}nen has proposed a concept he calls Schr{\"o}dinger{\textquoteright}s Fetus as a solution to reconciling what he believes are two widely held but contradictory intuitions. I show that Elizabeth Harman{\textquoteright}s Actual Future Principle, upon which Schr{\"o}dinger{\textquoteright}s Fetus is based, uses a more convincing account of personhood. I also argue that both R{\"a}s{\"a}nen and Harman, by embracing animalism, weaken their arguments by allowing Don Marquis{\textquoteright} {\textquoteleft}future like ours{\textquoteright} argument for the immorality of abortion into the frame.",

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AB - Joona Räsänen has proposed a concept he calls Schrödinger’s Fetus as a solution to reconciling what he believes are two widely held but contradictory intuitions. I show that Elizabeth Harman’s Actual Future Principle, upon which Schrödinger’s Fetus is based, uses a more convincing account of personhood. I also argue that both Räsänen and Harman, by embracing animalism, weaken their arguments by allowing Don Marquis’ ‘future like ours’ argument for the immorality of abortion into the frame.

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KW - Fetus

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KW - Future like ours

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Schrödinger’s fetus examined

Abstract

Keywords

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