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               donstacy.com

Libertarian Critique of Engelhardt

7/5/2011

 
The Libertarian Bioethics Blog has recently transformed into an abstract review.  Today's abstract concerns Sigrid Fry-Revere's 1992 paper in The Journal of Clinical Ethics titled "A Libertarian Critique of H. Tristam Engelhardt, Jr.'s The Foundation of Bioethics."  I have previously identified Fry-Revere as a libertarian bioethicist.

In the abstract Fry-Revere concludes that Engelhardt's The Foundation of Bioethics is unacceptable from a libertarian point of view because Engelhardt's "beliefs ... that fetuses, infants, and the mentally retarded are nonpersons ... are based on a misunderstanding of personhood and violate the principle of mutual respect."  I look forward to a detailing reading of the article, for I have been seeking a belief system that can rationally explain why fetuses, infants, and the mentally retarded are persons/have rights while animals are not persons/do not have rights.  Does Fry-Revere's theory meet this libertarian challenge? 

Ayn Rand's objectivist theory of rights (the most lucid libertarian theory of rights I have encountered) asserts that rights can only be held by beings who are capable of reasoning and thinking; therefore, according to Rand, fetuses, infants, and the mentally retarded AND animals are not persons and do not have rights.  How does Rand's theory solve the marginal-humans (fetuses, infants, the mentally retarded, and animals) dilemma?  Fetuses, infants, and the mentally retarded have the potential to develop the capability of reasoning and thinking, whereas animals do not; thus fetuses, infants, and the mentally retarded have rights but animals do not.

Is Fry-Revere's libertarian theory of rights a strong competitor to Ayn Rand's objectivist theory of rights?  Is Fry-Revere's theory a libertarian theory?  Is Fry-Revere a libertarian?

Again I complete a post with more questions than answers.       

Comments are closed.

    LIBERTARIAN BIOETHICS BLOG

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    Don Stacy is a 43 yo libertarian writer and physician and bioethics graduate student.  His articles have been published by multiple libertarian-themed websites.  He practices medicine as a radiation oncologist in Louisville, KY and Jeffersonville, IN.     

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