From: Rafal Smigrodzki (rms2g@virginia.edu)
Date: Thu Jan 09 2003 - 07:47:31 MST
Lee wrote:
>
> 3. If thalidomide doesn't work, might she then ethically truncate
> the baby's limbs by surgery to ensure that she has brought into
> existence some more people like herself, with her special rich
> idiosyncratic way of being-in-the-world?
>
> I agree with Hal, who wrote "That's a great question". Such
> questions make me very unsure of what "ethics" means, and cause
> me to wax skeptical that it should be considered. But let's
> consult the Golden Rule for an interesting insight. According
> to that, what she's doing is quite ethical, as in one way that
> is exactly what she would want her mother to do if the roles
> were reversed.
### Most people with severe deformities resent their disability (a fact). We
have to use probabilistic arguments about the child, and assume that she
will develop the common attitude, rather than her mother's idiosyncratic
distaste for limbs. Therefore, the Golden Rule (in the form of veil of
ignorance) demands that we act in the predicted interest of the child, and
stop/punish her mother.
Rafal
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