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PaperclipPerfector  4mo ago (text post)   37973 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of July 8, 2024

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About a year or two ago there was a article published in a medical journal by two notable medical ethicists evaluating the possibility of infanticide, calling it “post-birth abortion” and coming down in favor of it.

It takes lots of study, and a couple of advanced degrees, before you become morally advanced enough to advocate killing babies.

Got a link? I need to keep that one handy. Not that linking it will ever do anything but trigger the "it's not happening" -> "and they deserve it" shift

Link (from 2013, not "about a year or two ago")

Abortion is largely accepted even for reasons that do not have anything to do with the fetus's health. By showing that (1) both fetuses and newborns do not have the same moral status as actual persons, (2) the fact that both are potential persons is morally irrelevant, and (3) adoption is not always in the best interest of actual people, the authors argue that what we call ‘after-birth abortion’ (killing a newborn) should be permissible in all the cases where abortion is, including cases where the newborn is not disabled.

Editor's justification for publishing the article

This extension of the existing debate around infanticide from medical indications to social indications is relatively novel. I don't personally agree with it. But their arguments—based on the similar moral status of the fetus and neonate—call for rebuttal.

This paper was scrutinised by three peer reviewers and revised in light of their comments. The Journal publishes or refrains from publishing articles, not because of the controversial nature of their conclusion, but rather on the quality of the argument. If an argument were based on clearly and obviously mistaken premises, then we would reject it. But in this case there has been a long and ongoing debate on the moral status of early human life—embryos, fetuses, and neonates, as the above literature attests.

The Journal is publishing opposing views to accompany this controversial article.

I do approve of the editor's justification for publishing the article. Free speech above all.

Infanticide is currently legal in the Netherlands. The “Groningen Protocol” allows doctors to kill neonates at the request of their parents if they are experiencing unbearable suffering.

Huh. It's... true. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groningen_Protocol

The Groningen Protocol is a medical protocol created in September 2004 by Eduard Verhagen, the medical director of the department of pediatrics at the University Medical Center Groningen (UMCG) in Groningen, the Netherlands. It contains directives with criteria under which physicians can perform "active ending of life on infants" (child euthanasia) without fear of legal prosecution

Who defines "unbearable suffering"?

The final decision about "active ending of life on infants" is not in the hands of the physicians but with the parents

Well then.

At least 20 years ago all cases seem heavy disabilities:

In 2005 a review study was undertaken of all 22 reported cases between 1997 and 2004.[7] All cases concerned newborns with spina bifida and hydrocephalus. In all cases, at least 2 doctors were consulted outside the medical team. In 17 of 22 cases, a multidisciplinary spina bifida team was consulted. All parents consented to the termination of life; in 4 cases they explicitly requested it. The mean time between reporting of the case and the decision concerning prosecution was 5.3 months.

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