tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3891434218564545511.post6806737584529102803..comments2024-03-28T19:56:42.305-05:00Comments on Alexander Pruss's Blog: Laurie Paul on deciding whether to have childrenAlexander R Prusshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05989277655934827117noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3891434218564545511.post-72867927823007112052013-03-20T17:33:36.681-05:002013-03-20T17:33:36.681-05:00We can wrongfully treat future persons, say by pol...We can wrongfully treat future persons, say by polluting the earth in ways that only have consequences in 150 years.<br />Maybe this requires eternalism. If so, that's another argument for eternalism.Alexander R Prusshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05989277655934827117noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3891434218564545511.post-12721337600586610962013-03-20T17:27:12.202-05:002013-03-20T17:27:12.202-05:00I’m nervous about this claim:
“To decide to have...I’m nervous about this claim: <br /><br />“To decide to have a child on the basis of what it will be like for one is to treat the child's very existence as a means to one's ends. This is morally objectionable in the same way that it is morally objectionable to decide to rescue a drowning person on the basis of what it will be like for one to be a rescuer.”<br /><br />If Sally is drowning and I can choose between saving and not saving her, then I am compelled <i>by my obligations to Sally</i> to save her. But when I am faced with the decision about whether to have a child, it doesn’t make sense to talk about my obligations to my child. For given that I have no children, it would not be true to say that my child is a rational being or a member of the human race or a being with dignity. My child is not a being at all, because I have no children. So it is at least clear that, if I choose not to have children, I cannot have mistreated my child. But it also seems that, if I choose to have a child, this choice (of itself) isn’t mistreating my child either, since the choice is made at a time during which I have no obligations to the child. SMatthewStoltehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06632670946997680263noreply@blogger.com