There’s a few people in the comments here openly supporting involuntary abortion reduction. I’m curious how far that kind of philosophy goes? If this is you, do you also support involuntary meat consumption reduction in low income countries? How about involuntary appropriation of people’s crypto investments for EA grants...?
Thanks for your question, Ruth. I confess to being a sucker for the liberal democracy post-WW2 human rights deontological framework, according to which involuntary abortion reduction follows from a fairly simple premise: human embryos/foetuses are human beings. If so, then according to the standard human rights framework (specifically ICCPR Article 6) they have a right to life which must be protected in law—i.e. they cannot be killed.
I don’t see how a comparable case can be made for the interventions you mention. I know less than nothing about crypto so really couldn’t say anything at all about that. Regarding involuntary meat consumption reduction, I don’t think non-human animals have a right to life so consuming meat would not be wrong for the same reasons.
Whether meat consumption could reasonably/permissibly be involuntary reduced (I’m not sure why it would be specifically limited to poor countries) for other reasons depends on the facts of the case, I think. I certainly wouldn’t have an in principle/absolute objection to doing so if the case for doing so (either from climate concerns, animal suffering, or scarcity) were sufficiently strong. We rationed meat in the war and I don’t think that violated any sort of inviolable right to bodily autonomy, for example.
Ah, so your perspective is not about increasing the number of future people but fighting for rights for people who you would say already exist. Just to be clear: you would support interventions that reduced unintended pregnancy before conception, such as long-acting contraceptives? The OP seems unsure on this point.
Yes—I don’t want to speak for Ariel, but my sense is that we have pretty different perspectives on why abortion is bad. I have a fairly traditional pro-life position unrelated to population ethics or utilitarian considerations. I generally think children are a good thing for various reasons, but I’m not into maximising population for population ethics reasons or anything like that.
Even for LARCs I’m pretty sceptical that their promotion significantly reduces abortions except in exceptional circumstances (e.g. former soviet states where abortion was used as birth control). But I would support other interventions which, for example, hardcore pronatalists might well oppose (e.g. education encouraging delay of sexual debut, discouragement of multiple sexual partners, bans on surrogacy, etc.).
There’s a few people in the comments here openly supporting involuntary abortion reduction. I’m curious how far that kind of philosophy goes? If this is you, do you also support involuntary meat consumption reduction in low income countries? How about involuntary appropriation of people’s crypto investments for EA grants...?
Thanks for your question, Ruth. I confess to being a sucker for the liberal democracy post-WW2 human rights deontological framework, according to which involuntary abortion reduction follows from a fairly simple premise: human embryos/foetuses are human beings. If so, then according to the standard human rights framework (specifically ICCPR Article 6) they have a right to life which must be protected in law—i.e. they cannot be killed.
I don’t see how a comparable case can be made for the interventions you mention. I know less than nothing about crypto so really couldn’t say anything at all about that. Regarding involuntary meat consumption reduction, I don’t think non-human animals have a right to life so consuming meat would not be wrong for the same reasons.
Whether meat consumption could reasonably/permissibly be involuntary reduced (I’m not sure why it would be specifically limited to poor countries) for other reasons depends on the facts of the case, I think. I certainly wouldn’t have an in principle/absolute objection to doing so if the case for doing so (either from climate concerns, animal suffering, or scarcity) were sufficiently strong. We rationed meat in the war and I don’t think that violated any sort of inviolable right to bodily autonomy, for example.
Ah, so your perspective is not about increasing the number of future people but fighting for rights for people who you would say already exist. Just to be clear: you would support interventions that reduced unintended pregnancy before conception, such as long-acting contraceptives? The OP seems unsure on this point.
Yes—I don’t want to speak for Ariel, but my sense is that we have pretty different perspectives on why abortion is bad. I have a fairly traditional pro-life position unrelated to population ethics or utilitarian considerations. I generally think children are a good thing for various reasons, but I’m not into maximising population for population ethics reasons or anything like that.
Even for LARCs I’m pretty sceptical that their promotion significantly reduces abortions except in exceptional circumstances (e.g. former soviet states where abortion was used as birth control). But I would support other interventions which, for example, hardcore pronatalists might well oppose (e.g. education encouraging delay of sexual debut, discouragement of multiple sexual partners, bans on surrogacy, etc.).