Abortion and infanticide: why the parent-child relationship symmetry breaker fails

Some pro-life philosophers have argued that if one accepts abortion, one should accept infanticide. Prabhpal Singh has proposed a symmetry breaker. He argues that the parent-child relationship can only be obtained between born humans and such a relationship entails that infanticide is wrong. I consi...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Holt, Joshua William (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
Check availability: HBZ Gateway
Interlibrary Loan:Interlibrary Loan for the Fachinformationsdienste (Specialized Information Services in Germany)
Published: 2025
In: Journal of medical ethics
Year: 2025, Volume: 51, Issue: 11, Pages: 766-769
Online Access: Volltext (lizenzpflichtig)
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Summary:Some pro-life philosophers have argued that if one accepts abortion, one should accept infanticide. Prabhpal Singh has proposed a symmetry breaker. He argues that the parent-child relationship can only be obtained between born humans and such a relationship entails that infanticide is wrong. I consider this account and argue that not only is its central claim, that only born humans can stand in a parent-child relationship, unmotivated, but even if accepted, it would still not explain why infanticide is wrong.
ISSN:1473-4257
Contains:Enthalten in: Journal of medical ethics
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1136/jme-2024-110387