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Moral Philosophy Reading Group (MPRG)
April 15 @ 4:00 pm - 5:30 pm
MPRG with Giuli Cavaliere:
Chapter Title: ‘Rescue, Aid, and the Challenge from Adoption’
Chapter Abstract: This paper examines and responds to two versions of what I refer to as the challenge from adoption. According to the first, those who wish to have children are morally required to adopt existing children in need rather than procreate. According to the second, the state ought not to support fertility services, since doing so may reduce the adoption prospects of children in institutional care. I argue that neither version succeeds. In response to the first, I show that, under current non-ideal conditions, adoption is not analogous to cases of easy rescue: the very features that give rise to a putative duty to adopt also make adoption exceedingly demanding in ways that the argument for such a duty cannot adequately accommodate. Under ideal conditions, where these costs are set aside, the deontic framework relied on by proponents of the duty to adopt remains ill-suited to appraising practices such as procreation, parenthood, and adoption, because it obscures their distinctive value and flattens the moral landscape. In response to the second, I argue that institutional duties towards children require that they be protected and supported, but not that the state secures the best possible outcome through adoption.
Location: Edgecliffe 104