Christopher Belshaw

University of York

Procreative Beneficence and Procreative Asymmetry: Some Tensions

28 April 2017, 16:00

Faculdade de Letras de Lisboa

Sala Mattos Romão (Departamento de Filosofia)

Abstract: Procreative Beneficence (PB) is the view that we should select the best of two possible children, or the best of two future populations. Procreative Asymmetry (PA) is the view that though there is an obligation not to start bad lives, there is no obligation to start good lives.

PB can seem plausible. See, for example, Savulescu and Parfit. PA similarly can seem plausible. See, for example, McMahan. But, I argue, these two views are in tension. If we should start the best of two lives, when starting either is possible, then, contra PA, we should start good lives, when that is possible. Conversely, if there isn’t an obligation to start good lives, then, contra PB, there isn’t an obligation to start the best of two lives.

Which of these views is the more secure? PB, I argue, has several flaws. PA, in contrast, can withstand various objections (concerning its squaring with intuitions, its coherence, its lack of a rationale) that are made against it. We should prefer it to PB.