Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

The Asymmetry of Creating and Not Creating Life

  • Published:
The Journal of Value Inquiry Aims and scope Submit manuscript

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

References

  1. Jeff McMahan, The Ethics of Killing (New York: Oxford University Press, 2002), p. 300.

    Google Scholar 

  2. See Thomas Nagel, Mortal Questions (Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1979), pp. 1–10, and Peter Singer, Practical Ethics, 2nd ed. (Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1993).

    Google Scholar 

  3. See Derek Parfit, Reasons and Persons (New York: Oxford University Press, 1984), pp. 381–438.

    Google Scholar 

  4. See Stuart Rachels, “Is it Good to Make Happy People,” Bioethics 12 (1998). See also Michael Tooley, “Value, Obligation, and the Asymmetry Question,” Bioethics 12 (1998).

  5. Peter Singer, “Life's Uncertain Voyage,” in Phillip Pettit, Richard Sylvan, and Jean Norman eds., Metaphysics and Morality: Essays in Honor of J.J.C. Smart (Oxford: Blackwell, 1987).

    Google Scholar 

  6. Ibid, p. 170.

  7. Ibid., p. 169.

  8. Ibid., p. 158.

  9. Ibid., p. 170.

  10. Ibid., pp. 168–169.

  11. See Christoph Fehige, “A Pareto Principle for Possible People,” in Christoph Fehige and Ulla Wessels, eds., Preferences (New York: de Gruyter, 1998), and Jan Narveson, “Moral Problems of Population,” The Monist 57 (1973).

    Google Scholar 

  12. See Gregory Kavka, “The Paradox of Future Individuals,” Philosophy and Public Affairs 11 (1982).

  13. See R.I. Sikora, “Is It Wrong to Prevent the Existence of Future Generations?,” in R.I. Sikora and B. Barry, eds., Obligations to Future Generations (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1978). Also see Jeff McMahan, “Preferences, Death, and the Ethics of Killing,” in Christoph Fehige and Ulla Wessels, op. cit., Stuart Rachels, op. cit., and Michael Lockwood, “Singer on Killing and the Preference for Life,” Inquiry 22 (1979).

    Google Scholar 

  14. Peter Singer, “Possible Preferences,” in Christoph Fehige and Ulla Wessels, op. cit., p. 389.

  15. Jeff McMahan, op. cit., p. 41.

  16. I would like to thank Kenneth Richman, Neil Mehta, and Douglas Lee for their helpful comments on an early draft of this paper.

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 5175 NE 3rd Ct., Apt. 2, Miami, FL, 33137, USA

    Daniel J. Elstein

Authors
  1. Daniel J. Elstein
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Daniel J. Elstein.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Elstein, D.J. The Asymmetry of Creating and Not Creating Life. J Value Inquiry 39, 49–59 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10790-006-7256-4

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10790-006-7256-4

Keywords

Search

Navigation