Review. The Non-identity Problem and the Ethics of Future People By David Boonin The Risk of a Lifetime: How, When and Why Procreation May Be Permissible By Rivka Weinberg

Abstract

David Boonin’s The Non-Identity Problem and the Ethics of Future People and Rivka Weinberg’s The Risk of a Lifetime: How, When, and Why Procreation May Be Permissible are both important books for those interested in procreative ethics. Each argues for surprising and controversial conclusions: Boonin argues that we should solve the Non-Identity Problem by accepting its apparently unacceptable conclusion that actions cannot be wrong due to their effects on future people whose lives are worth living and who would not exist were the actions not performed; Weinberg argues that there is no Non-Identity Problem, that future children have no interest in existing, but significant interest in avoiding harm, and that procreation is, therefore, a much more morally risky business than we tend to think. Even if you cannot bring yourself to accept their conclusions, engaging with these thought-provoking texts will provide a deeper understanding of the ethics of future people.

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