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by SeanBoocock 3436 days ago
A typical answer to this is to develop notions of a "moral community" and individuals that belong to it[1]. Those within the moral community can make certain basic claims, thus rights, on others within it such as a right to life. Depending on how you define membership within the moral community, you can make an argument that (early stage) abortion is permissible but infanticide is not.

[1]: http://www.csus.edu/indiv/g/gaskilld/ethics/abortion.htm
1 comments
reitanqild 3436 days ago
I rarely bring up nazis but this sounds like something that could have been fetched straight out of nazi Germany:

they had a number of programs for getting rid of unwanted individuals and actually not only forced people but also did public (IIRC) outreach to sell the idea to doctors and parents of severly disabled or otherwise unwanted kids.

(Long time since last I read about this but I think "aktion t4" and "Tiergartenstraße" is the thing to search for if anyone is interested.)

link