So, my position is that the necessary standard to justify ending a 10 month old’s life is only a bit lower than that of ending a 18 year old’s life, and is only a bit higher than the necessary standard to justify ending a fetus’s life. I’m patient. But what that statement often obscures is that I’m willing to let people meet that standard. I would support ending the individual you described at ages of 6 years, 60 years, 6 months, or 6 months after conception.
But the acknowledgement that not every life should be continued is very different from a “return policy” sort of infanticide which Bakkot is justifying by saying “well, they’re not people yet.” Sometimes it’s best to kill people, too, and so personhood isn’t the true issue.
So, my position is that the necessary standard to justify ending a 10 month old’s life is only a bit lower than that of ending a 18 year old’s life, and is only a bit higher than the necessary standard to justify ending a fetus’s life. I’m patient. But what that statement often obscures is that I’m willing to let people meet that standard. I would support ending the individual you described at ages of 6 years, 60 years, 6 months, or 6 months after conception.
But the acknowledgement that not every life should be continued is very different from a “return policy” sort of infanticide which Bakkot is justifying by saying “well, they’re not people yet.” Sometimes it’s best to kill people, too, and so personhood isn’t the true issue.