The practical goal of preventing premature death seems uncontroversial. But the term 'premature d... more The practical goal of preventing premature death seems uncontroversial. But the term 'premature death' is vague with several, sometimes conflicting definitions. This ambiguity results in several conceptions with which not all will agree. Moreover, the normative rationale behind the goal of preventing premature deaths is masked by the operational definition of existing measures. In this article, we argue that 'premature death' should be recognized as a normative concept. We propose that normative theories should be used to justify measures of premature death to provide them with normative validity and public legitimacy.
During the last decades there has been an ongoing ethical debate about vegetarianism. This debate... more During the last decades there has been an ongoing ethical debate about vegetarianism. This debate has attracted several philosophers, theologicians and others. The purpose of this paper is to provide an account of the moral basis of vegetarianism. Generally speaking, there ...
Summary measures of health or well-being must assign a value to averting death and relate it to t... more Summary measures of health or well-being must assign a value to averting death and relate it to the value of preventing or curing morbidity. The authors address two key questions about how to value the prevention of death: (1) how the age at which someone dies affects how bad their death is and (2) at what age death starts to be bad for the decedent. Current practice includes, by default, views about both questions that the authors think are mistaken. Regarding (1), the authors argue in favor of gradualism: the value assigned to preventing mortality should gradually increase during early cognitive development, so that the prevention of perinatal deaths is assigned a lower value than the prevention of the deaths of older children. Regarding (2), value should be assigned to preventing deaths from the point of the onset of sentience—at around 28 weeks gestational age—so that the prevention of stillbirths is also valued. The authors tentatively suggest a function for calculating the dis...
works in Western philosophy, especially Spinoza, ethics, the philosophy of religion, environmenta... more works in Western philosophy, especially Spinoza, ethics, the philosophy of religion, environmental ethics, moral philosophy, and the philosophy of conflict resolution. He has written several articles on Spinoza in Norwegian journals of philosophy and is currently working on a PhD in philosophy on the morality of forgiveness. In this paper I will attempt to answer the question of who or what can have moral status in the environment in the sense that we show direct moral concern and respect toward them. The traditional answer to this question has been anthropocentric, where moral status is ascribed only to human beings, all or some. I shall argue against this position and in favour of a nonanthropocentric position that ascribes moral status to all individual organisms, as well as to certain kinds of supra-individual wholes such as species-populations, ecosystems, and the biosphere as a whole. This corresponds to a combined biocentric and ecocentric position. The argument is constructe...
Each year policymakers around the world must make hard decisions about how to allocate scarce hea... more Each year policymakers around the world must make hard decisions about how to allocate scarce health care resources. Given the scarcity of many life-saving interventions, making allocation decisions entails determining who lives and who dies. One relevant aspect of such allocation decisions concerns the relative importance of death at different ages. The purpose of this chapter is to explore this issue by examining three age-specific allocation principles and their underlying moral foundations: a youngest first principle, prioritizing infants; a children first principle, prioritizing children; and a young adults first principle, prioritizing adolescents and young adults. My claim is that a youngest first principle can draw support from the Deprivation Account, a children first principle can draw support from a gradualist view, and a young adult first principle can draw support from the Complete Lives Account. I conclude, tentatively, that gradualism and children first allocation sho...
In this paper I will attempt to answer the question of who or what can have moral status in the e... more In this paper I will attempt to answer the question of who or what can have moral status in the environment in the sense that we show direct moral concern and respect toward them. The traditional answer to this question has been anthropocentric, where moral status is ascribed only to human beings, all or some. I shall argue against this position and in favour of a nonanthropocentric position that ascribes moral status to all individual organisms, as well as to certain kinds of supra-individual wholes such as species-populations, ecosystems, and the biosphere as a whole. This corresponds to a combined biocentric and ecocentric position. The argument is constructed in part as a Spinozistic argument using the conceptual apparatus of Baruch Spinoza’s systematic philosophy, but it introduces some additional premises as well. The Question of Moral Status The underlying question to be discussed in this paper is: Who or what can have a moral status in the environment? There are several comp...
in Norway. He is working on a PhD in philosophy. The working title of his project is A Change of ... more in Norway. He is working on a PhD in philosophy. The working title of his project is A Change of Heart-The Morality and Psychology of Forgiveness. His main interests are moral philosophy, environmental ethics, conflict resolution, Spinoza, and Buddhist ethics. His article "Who Has Moral Status in the Environment: A Spinozistic Answer," is forthcoming in the Trumpeter. He has studied the philosophy of Arne Naess for several years, and talked with him personally.
Etikk i praksis - Nordic Journal of Applied Ethics
De siste årene har fosterreduksjon i økende grad vært gjenstand for debatt i Norge, og intensitet... more De siste årene har fosterreduksjon i økende grad vært gjenstand for debatt i Norge, og intensiteten nådde et foreløpig maksimum da Lovavdelingen leverte tolknings-uttalelsen § 2 - Tolkning av abortloven i 2016 som svar på at Helse- og omsorgs-departementet (i 2014) ba Lovavdelingen om å vurdere hvorvidt Lov om svangers-kapsavbrudd åpner for fosterreduksjon av friske fostre ved flerlings-vangerskap. Lovavdelingen konkluderte med at abortloven åpner for fosterreduksjon ved flerlingsvangerskap innenfor de rammene som loven ellers oppstiller. Debatten har ikke stilnet, og utover høsten 2018 ble den ytterligere tilspisset i forbindelse med KrFs veivalg og signaler fra Høyre om å vurdere å fjerne § 2.3c, samt å forby fosterreduksjon. Mange av argumentene i fosterreduksjonsdebatten fremstår tilsynelatende like de argumentene som verserer i abortdebatten, og det mangler en analyse av hva som stiller seg annerledes ved fosterreduksjon. Målet med denne artikkelen er følgelig å undersøke hvorv...
The practical goal of preventing premature death seems uncontroversial. But the term 'premature d... more The practical goal of preventing premature death seems uncontroversial. But the term 'premature death' is vague with several, sometimes conflicting definitions. This ambiguity results in several conceptions with which not all will agree. Moreover, the normative rationale behind the goal of preventing premature deaths is masked by the operational definition of existing measures. In this article, we argue that 'premature death' should be recognized as a normative concept. We propose that normative theories should be used to justify measures of premature death to provide them with normative validity and public legitimacy.
During the last decades there has been an ongoing ethical debate about vegetarianism. This debate... more During the last decades there has been an ongoing ethical debate about vegetarianism. This debate has attracted several philosophers, theologicians and others. The purpose of this paper is to provide an account of the moral basis of vegetarianism. Generally speaking, there ...
Summary measures of health or well-being must assign a value to averting death and relate it to t... more Summary measures of health or well-being must assign a value to averting death and relate it to the value of preventing or curing morbidity. The authors address two key questions about how to value the prevention of death: (1) how the age at which someone dies affects how bad their death is and (2) at what age death starts to be bad for the decedent. Current practice includes, by default, views about both questions that the authors think are mistaken. Regarding (1), the authors argue in favor of gradualism: the value assigned to preventing mortality should gradually increase during early cognitive development, so that the prevention of perinatal deaths is assigned a lower value than the prevention of the deaths of older children. Regarding (2), value should be assigned to preventing deaths from the point of the onset of sentience—at around 28 weeks gestational age—so that the prevention of stillbirths is also valued. The authors tentatively suggest a function for calculating the dis...
works in Western philosophy, especially Spinoza, ethics, the philosophy of religion, environmenta... more works in Western philosophy, especially Spinoza, ethics, the philosophy of religion, environmental ethics, moral philosophy, and the philosophy of conflict resolution. He has written several articles on Spinoza in Norwegian journals of philosophy and is currently working on a PhD in philosophy on the morality of forgiveness. In this paper I will attempt to answer the question of who or what can have moral status in the environment in the sense that we show direct moral concern and respect toward them. The traditional answer to this question has been anthropocentric, where moral status is ascribed only to human beings, all or some. I shall argue against this position and in favour of a nonanthropocentric position that ascribes moral status to all individual organisms, as well as to certain kinds of supra-individual wholes such as species-populations, ecosystems, and the biosphere as a whole. This corresponds to a combined biocentric and ecocentric position. The argument is constructe...
Each year policymakers around the world must make hard decisions about how to allocate scarce hea... more Each year policymakers around the world must make hard decisions about how to allocate scarce health care resources. Given the scarcity of many life-saving interventions, making allocation decisions entails determining who lives and who dies. One relevant aspect of such allocation decisions concerns the relative importance of death at different ages. The purpose of this chapter is to explore this issue by examining three age-specific allocation principles and their underlying moral foundations: a youngest first principle, prioritizing infants; a children first principle, prioritizing children; and a young adults first principle, prioritizing adolescents and young adults. My claim is that a youngest first principle can draw support from the Deprivation Account, a children first principle can draw support from a gradualist view, and a young adult first principle can draw support from the Complete Lives Account. I conclude, tentatively, that gradualism and children first allocation sho...
In this paper I will attempt to answer the question of who or what can have moral status in the e... more In this paper I will attempt to answer the question of who or what can have moral status in the environment in the sense that we show direct moral concern and respect toward them. The traditional answer to this question has been anthropocentric, where moral status is ascribed only to human beings, all or some. I shall argue against this position and in favour of a nonanthropocentric position that ascribes moral status to all individual organisms, as well as to certain kinds of supra-individual wholes such as species-populations, ecosystems, and the biosphere as a whole. This corresponds to a combined biocentric and ecocentric position. The argument is constructed in part as a Spinozistic argument using the conceptual apparatus of Baruch Spinoza’s systematic philosophy, but it introduces some additional premises as well. The Question of Moral Status The underlying question to be discussed in this paper is: Who or what can have a moral status in the environment? There are several comp...
in Norway. He is working on a PhD in philosophy. The working title of his project is A Change of ... more in Norway. He is working on a PhD in philosophy. The working title of his project is A Change of Heart-The Morality and Psychology of Forgiveness. His main interests are moral philosophy, environmental ethics, conflict resolution, Spinoza, and Buddhist ethics. His article "Who Has Moral Status in the Environment: A Spinozistic Answer," is forthcoming in the Trumpeter. He has studied the philosophy of Arne Naess for several years, and talked with him personally.
Etikk i praksis - Nordic Journal of Applied Ethics
De siste årene har fosterreduksjon i økende grad vært gjenstand for debatt i Norge, og intensitet... more De siste årene har fosterreduksjon i økende grad vært gjenstand for debatt i Norge, og intensiteten nådde et foreløpig maksimum da Lovavdelingen leverte tolknings-uttalelsen § 2 - Tolkning av abortloven i 2016 som svar på at Helse- og omsorgs-departementet (i 2014) ba Lovavdelingen om å vurdere hvorvidt Lov om svangers-kapsavbrudd åpner for fosterreduksjon av friske fostre ved flerlings-vangerskap. Lovavdelingen konkluderte med at abortloven åpner for fosterreduksjon ved flerlingsvangerskap innenfor de rammene som loven ellers oppstiller. Debatten har ikke stilnet, og utover høsten 2018 ble den ytterligere tilspisset i forbindelse med KrFs veivalg og signaler fra Høyre om å vurdere å fjerne § 2.3c, samt å forby fosterreduksjon. Mange av argumentene i fosterreduksjonsdebatten fremstår tilsynelatende like de argumentene som verserer i abortdebatten, og det mangler en analyse av hva som stiller seg annerledes ved fosterreduksjon. Målet med denne artikkelen er følgelig å undersøke hvorv...
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