Famine, Affluence, and Procreation: Peter Singer and Anti-Natalism Lite

Peter Singer has argued that the affluent have very extensive duties to the world’s poor. His argument has some important implications for procreation, most of which have not yet been acknowledged. These implications are explicated in this paper. First, the rich should desist from procreation and in...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Benatar, David 1966- (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
Check availability: HBZ Gateway
Interlibrary Loan:Interlibrary Loan for the Fachinformationsdienste (Specialized Information Services in Germany)
Published: [2020]
In: Ethical theory and moral practice
Year: 2020, Volume: 23, Issue: 2, Pages: 415-431
RelBib Classification:NCC Social ethics
NCD Political ethics
NCF Sexual ethics
VA Philosophy
Further subjects:B Peter Singer
B Poverty
B Procreation
B Anti-natalism
B Demandingness
B Poverty relief
Online Access: Volltext (Resolving-System)
Description
Summary:Peter Singer has argued that the affluent have very extensive duties to the world’s poor. His argument has some important implications for procreation, most of which have not yet been acknowledged. These implications are explicated in this paper. First, the rich should desist from procreation and instead divert to the poor those resources that would have been used to rear the children that would otherwise have been produced. Second, the poor (and possibly also the rich) should desist from procreation because doing so can prevent the very bad things that would otherwise have befallen the children they would have brought into existence. Third, the rich (and others) sometimes have a duty to prevent the poor from procreating. Fourth, the rich sometimes have a right to prevent the poor from reproducing. Although these implications may not amount to a categorical prohibition on all procreation, they do significantly restrict the permissibility of procreation. They are, in that sense, anti-natalist.
ISSN:1572-8447
Contains:Enthalten in: Ethical theory and moral practice
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1007/s10677-020-10073-4