Ingrid Robeyns: Is Procreation Special?

Colloquium lecture by Ingrid Robeyns (Utrecht), organized by the Department of Ethics, Social and Political Philosophy

According to the moral equivalence thesis, overconsumption and procreation are morally equivalent: there is no morally relevant difference between the use of environmental resources for consumption or for procreation. This paper develops two critiques against the moral equivalence thesis: a capabilitarian argument, and an argument based on human self-understanding. Existing analyses of the moral equivalence thesis have, implicitly or explicitly, started from a version of equality of resources. I first show that...(continue reading...)