Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- Acknowledgements
- 1 Introduction: diverse ethics
- 2 Darwinism and ethics
- 3 Creation and relation
- 4 Embryo experimentation: public policy in a pluralist society
- 5 Ethical considerations in genetic testing: an empirical study of presymptomatic diagnosis of Huntington's disease
- 6 Identity matters
- 7 The virtues in a professional setting
- 8 Medical ethics, moral philosophy and moral tradition
- 9 Roman suicide
- 10 Women and children first
- 11 Moral uncertainty and human embryo experimentation
- 12 Morality: invention or discovery?
- 13 Quality of life and health care
- 14 Dependency: the foundational value in medical ethics
- 15 Not more medical ethics
- Index
10 - Women and children first
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 04 April 2011
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- Acknowledgements
- 1 Introduction: diverse ethics
- 2 Darwinism and ethics
- 3 Creation and relation
- 4 Embryo experimentation: public policy in a pluralist society
- 5 Ethical considerations in genetic testing: an empirical study of presymptomatic diagnosis of Huntington's disease
- 6 Identity matters
- 7 The virtues in a professional setting
- 8 Medical ethics, moral philosophy and moral tradition
- 9 Roman suicide
- 10 Women and children first
- 11 Moral uncertainty and human embryo experimentation
- 12 Morality: invention or discovery?
- 13 Quality of life and health care
- 14 Dependency: the foundational value in medical ethics
- 15 Not more medical ethics
- Index
Summary
The cry ‘Women and children first!’ is hallowed in both maritime history and moral tradition. There are many incidents similar to the Zeebrugge disaster in which folk have died attempting to save young children and those weaker than themselves. But the deep-rooted intuition this cry expresses is suspect in moral formulations where we attempt to justify assigning moral properties to various actions, states of affairs and beings of this or that kind. It soon emerges that the most obvious justifications available to us fail to give any especial weight to the claims of infants and children. This should prompt us to ask whether it is our moral intuitions or our moral formulations that need revision.
I will examine the basis for our special concern for the young and helpless and argue that it is basic to our nature as ethical beings. This suggests that many of our moral justifications fail to capture the essence of moral thought. I will argue that our moral reasoning about beings of various kinds is based on something close to ‘reactive attitudes’ rather than the objective properties of those subjects (although mental ascriptions play a pivotal role in the story).
(1) We intuitively believe that the ethical importance of a human being is greater than that of an animal, plant or computer. To justify this judgement as being more than just an irrational prejudice in favour of human beings, we usually invoke facts about the wishes and desires of the individuals concerned, their conscious appreciation of life and/or their preferences about what should happen to them.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Medicine and Moral Reasoning , pp. 131 - 143Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1994