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Boonin on the Non-Identity Problem

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Boonin on the Non-Identity Problem Boonin on the Non-Identity Problem David Boonin starts by presenting two cases. The first is roughly this: Betty Betty is six months pregnant. Her doctor tells her that, if she keeps taking the medication that she is currently on, be born with an illness that causes minor health problems throughout life, and a premature death at age 30. But, if she stops taking the meds (or switches to a different brand that is equally effective), her child will be perfectly healthy. (Though, either way, the child’s life will be, on the whole, a good life; i.e., a life worth living.) Betty considers the doctor’s advice. However, since it would be a minor inconvenience to switch medications, she keeps taking the medication. Her child experiences some health issues and later dies at 30. My Unhealthy Child case from the previous lecture is based on Boonin’s second case: Wilma Wilma is deciding whether or not to conceive a child. Her doctor tells her that, due to some medication she is currently on, if she conceives now, she will conceive a child that will be born with an illness that causes minor health problems throughout life, and a premature death at age 30. But, if she stops taking the medication and waits a month for it to clear her system before conceiving, her child will be perfectly healthy. (Though, either way, the child’s life will be, on the whole, a good life; i.e., a life worth living.) Wilma considers the doctor’s advice. However, since it would be a minor inconvenience to switch medications and wait a month to conceive, she decides to conceive right away. Her child experiences some health issues and later dies at 30. Intuitively, both Betty and Wilma act wrongly. In fact, there do not seem to be any morally relevant differences between their behavior. However, as the non-identity problem reveals, their actions are importantly different. For, Betty’s child (call him Bam Bam) ALREADY EXISTS, and her decision to keep taking her medication clearly harms Bam Bam. However, Wilma has a choice between (a) bringing a child into existence who will die young (call her Pebbles), or (b) bringing a child into existence who will live a long healthy life (call him Rocks). Whether she does (a) or (b), it is not clear that she has harmed her child either way. So, what explains the wrongness of Wilma’s action? Answering this question constitutes the Non-Identity Problem. [Re-Cap of Last Time: Recall that to harm a person P is to perform some action, A, which makes P worse off than P otherwise would have been. However, by conceiving immediately, Wilma does not make Pebbles worse off than Pebbles otherwise would have been. For, by conceiving immediately, Wilma gives Pebbles 30 good years. But, had she waited a month to conceive, Pebbles would have had zero good years. (For, in that case, Pebbles would never have been born at all! Rather, Rocks would have been born instead.) So, by giving Pebbles 30 good years rather than none at all, it seems that Wilma has actually BENEFITTED Pebbles rather than harmed her (i.e., she’s made Pebbles BETTER OFF than Pebbles otherwise would have been).] Here is the problem, in argument form: 1. Wilma does not harm her child. Assumption: Harm =df Making someone worse off than they otherwise would have been. 2. Wilma does not wrong her child in some other (harmless) way. 3. Wilma does not harm or wrong anyone else either. 4. If Wilma neither harms nor wrongs anyone, then she does not act wrongly. 5. Therefore, Wilma does not act wrongly. The problem is that, to most of us, the conclusion seems false. So, one of the premises must be false. But, which one? They all seem so plausible! Let’s look at each of them in turn. Objection to P1: Wilma DOES harm her child We can take issue with P1 either by (a) arguing that Wilma DOES harm her child according to this definition, or else that (b) Wilma harms her child not according to this definition of harm, but some other better definition. Strategy (a). Wilma makes her child worse off than s/he otherwise would have been. Consider this joke: You: They grow up so fast, don’t they? How old is your son now? Me: He’s 5. You: Wait, I asked you ten years ago, and you said your son was 5. Do you have more than one son? Me: No, I’ve only ever had one son. You: Then I don’t understand. Me: Well, you see… My son never gets any older than 5. You: How in the heck is that!? Me: Easy. Every time my son is about to turn 6, I give him up for adoption and adopt a 5 year old boy. Imagine that Timmy is presently my son. I’m not saying that TIMMY never ages past 5. That would be to use “my son” in what is called the de re sense. Instead, I’m using “my son” in what is called the de dicto sense. I’m saying that WHOEVER “my son” has referred to, THAT person (and it’s been at least ten children at this point) is always 5 years old while I’m their dad. Another example: (i) Roughly 66% of eligible voters cast a vote for the president in 2020. (ii) Roughly 34% of eligible voters cast a vote for the president in 2020. BOTH of these statements are true! In (i), “the president” is being used in the de dicto sense. That is, in 2020, 66% of eligible voters (~158 million people) cast a vote for someone or other to be president. In (ii), “the president” is being used in the de re sense. That is, in 2022, about 34% of eligible voters (~81 million people) voted specifically for Joe Biden to be president. Solution: It is true that Wilma does not harm “her child” in the de re sense (i.e., she does not make Pebbles worse off than she otherwise would have been). But, Wilma DOES harm “her child” in the de dicto sense (i.e., if Wilma conceives now, then the filler of the ROLE of “Wilma’s child” is worse off than the filler of that role would have been, had Wilma waited a month to conceive). In short, P1 is false; for Wilma DOES harm her child—namely, in the de dicto sense. Problem: This is a completely absurd usage of the term ‘harm’. You cannot harm someone in the de dicto sense; i.e., you cannot harm a ROLE, or an OFFICE. If you could, then it would be true that I harm “my child” in the following case: Adoption I am trying to decide whether to adopt (a) Jimmy, a child with a debilitating disease which will cause him some life-long discomfort, and lead to an early death at the age of 30; or (b) Timmy, a healthy child who will live a long, happy life. I adopt Jimmy. On the present suggestion, I HARM my child! For, I have caused “my child” (in the de dicto sense) to die much younger than he otherwise would have. And, what is more, it was WRONG to adopt Jimmy! (For, recall that the motivation for rejecting P1 here was to explain why it is WRONG for Wilma to conceive now rather than waiting a month.) That is absolutely absurd. [Note: You might also reject P1 by defending Benatar’s claim that bringing a child into existence is ALWAYS harmful—if that is true, then Wilma does harm Pebbles by conceiving immediately. Of course, then she would ALSO have harmed Rocks, had she conceived a month later instead!] Strategy (b). Wilma harms her child according to some other definition of ‘harm’. We have said said that ‘harm’ should be understood as follows: Harm = Making someone worse off than they otherwise would have been. But, recall these two cases: • Nose Punch (Some find it plausible that, in this case, you do harm your victim. Yet, you do not make them worse off than they otherwise would have been. If that is correct, then our proposed analysis of ‘harm’ does not supply a necessary condition for harming.) • New Restaurant (Some find it plausible that, in this case, you do not harm your “victim”. Yet, you do make them worse off than they otherwise would have been. If that is correct, then our proposed analysis of ‘harm’ does not supply a sufficient condition for harming.) So, the analysis of ‘harm’ above is unsatisfactory. Our next step would then be to propose some new analysis of ‘harm’ which better aligns with our intuitions—and one which entails that Wilma DOES harm Pebbles when she chooses to conceive immediately. (But, what might a better definition of ‘harm’ look like? Answering this question will be the subject of the next two lectures. So, stay tuned.) (Note: We’ve said that Wilma does not harm Pebbles by bringing her into existence, because this—i.e., existing—did not make her worse off than she otherwise would have been—i.e., non- existent. Now, you might be thinking that this claim is flawed because it compares existence with non-existence. But, this criticism would be a mistake. For, even if it were true that existence and non-existence cannot be compared, the claim that “Pebbles’ living a good life is not worse than never existing at all” would still be true! And this is all that Premise 1 requires.) Objection to P2: Wilma DOES wrong her child in some harmless way Recall that we also said that it might be possible to WRONG someone without HARMING them.
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