Ethics: Deontological Human Worth - Essay Example

Singer (1972) believed that it should be morally permissible to kill disabled newborns that lack the capability of becoming sentient. If communication ability remains a criterion for personhood then apes should have a moral state of a person and newborn should not due to lack of capability to communicate. Tooley (1983) believed that use of language is critical to personhood and support aborting infant and killing newborn who has or is at risk of having a disability. Englehardt (1975) excludes newborns as a person based on self-concept as critical criteria to personhood and newborn lacks self-concept.

Richard McCormick (1974), a priest and catholic theologian, also supports withholding life-sustaining treatment from an infant who is 'abnormal' and unlikely to develop human relations. If the newborn lacks the cognitive ability to think, reason, and plan and will likely never develop them then philosophers suggest it permissible to take life. These arguments are primarily to maximize the utility of invested resources and investing resources for cognitively impaired or at risk of impairment is unwise because it does not maximize utility.

According to deontological human worth can not be measured. We can use organs of nonperson to transplant into a person. Newborn with anencephaly is an example of this. Anencephaly is a brain defect. They usually die due to the nontreatment of apnea or infection. These infants can be used as organ donors. But it is not permissible until infants meet brain death criteria because it may increase the risk of improper treatment if an increase in donor pool is desired. Again it may lead to the use of other infants with less severe disorders.

Some people consider withholding or withdrawing treatment of newborns or infants with or risk of a disabling condition as infanticide because it allows the dying process to proceed. As per critics prevention of unwanted pregnancies and improved social support for mothers would be a better solution. In developing countries like India and china female infanticide occurs more often than male infanticide. This results in a disproportionate number of males to females in the population. Gendercide watch (2005) suggests that discounting the value of females in infancy will have far-reaching effects on these societies.