Abstract
In his many contributions to the bioethics literature over the past quarter century, H. Tristram Engelhardt, Jr. has addressed the question of the moral status of children a number of times, sometimes in passing and occasionally at greater length.1 Engelhardt typically distinguishes the moral status of younger children, including infants, from that of older children and adults; in this paper I will focus on his discussions of younger children.
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Notes
H. Tristram Engelhardt, Jr., “Viability, Abortion and the Difference Between a Fetus and an Infant,” American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology 116 (1973): 429–434, also “The Ontology of Abortion,” Ethics 84 (1974): 217–234, “Ethical Issues in Aiding the Death of Young Children,” in M. Kohl ed., Beneficent Euthanasia (Buffalo, New York: Prometheus Books, 1975), 180–192, also “On the Bounds of Freedom: From the Treatment of Fetuses to Euthanasia,” Connecticut Medicine 40 (1976): 51–55, also The Foundations of Bioethics (New York: Oxford University Press, 1986), lastly The Foundations of Bioethics, Second Edition (New York: Oxford University Press, 1996).
Engelhardt, Foundations (1986), 104–109; Foundations (1996), 135–140.
Engelhardt, Foundations (1996), 146–147.
Engelhardt, Foundations (1986), 119; Foundations (1996), 149.
Engelhardt, Foundations (1986), 129; Foundations (1996), 156.
Engelhardt himself uses this example in The Foundations of Bioethics to illustrate the tension between parental rights to choose treatment for their children and societal intervention to protect children from harm. See Foundations (1996), 329–330.
Engelhardt, Foundations (1986), 120–121; Foundations (1996), 150.
Engelhardt, “Viability, Abortion and the Difference” (1973), “The Ontology of Abortion” (1974), “Ethical Issues” (1975), also “On the Bounds of Freedom” (1976).
Engelhardt, Foundations (1986), 104–156, and Foundations (1996), 135–188.
Engelhardt, “The Ontology of Abortion,” 223–225, and Foundations (1986), 110–113.
Engelhardt, Foundations (1986), 115–121.
Engelhardt, Foundations (1986), 117.
In his most recent writing on this subject in the second edition of The Foundations of Bioethics, Engelhardt appears to have abandoned the sharp distinction he had previously drawn between the moral status of fetuses and that of infants. In the following passage, for example, Engelhardt seems willing to allow a social sense of personhood to be applied to fetuses as well as infants: “Still, in general secular terms a protected social role might be justified, or at least established within particular formal or informal agreements, for embryos, infants and others....” Foundations (1996), 147; emphasis added.
Engelhardt, “The Ontology of Abortion,” 231.
Engelhardt, Foundations (1986), 115.
Engelhardt, “Ethical Issues,” 183–185; Foundations (1986), 117–119; Foundations (1996), 148–149.
Engelhardt, Foundations (1986), 119.
Engelhardt, Foundations (1986), 127–135; Foundations (1996), 154–166.
Engelhardt, Foundations (1986), 129; Foundations (1996), 156.
Engelhardt, Foundations (1986), 134; Foundations (1996), 165.
Engelhardt, Foundations (1986), 109–110.
John Rawls, Political Liberalism (New York: Columbia University Press, 1993), 133–172.
Tibor R. Machan, “Between Parents and Children,” Journal of Social Philosophy 23 (1992): 17.
Engelhardt, Foundations (1986), 289–290; Foundations (1996), 329–330.
Engelhardt, Foundations (1986), 129.
Engelhardt, Foundations (1986), 287–288; Foundations (1996), 327–328.
D. Archard, Children: Rights and Childhood (London: Routledge, 1993).
Engelhardt, Foundations (1986), 128–129; Foundations, (1996), 155–156.
E. Page, “Parental Rights,” in B. Almond and D. Hill, eds., Applied Philosophy (London: Routledge, 1991), 73–89.
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Moskop, J.C. (1997). Persons, Property or Both? Engelhardt on the Moral Status of Young Children. In: Minogue, B.P., Palmer-Fernández, G., Reagan, J.E. (eds) Reading Engelhardt. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-5530-4_10
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