Better Never to Have Been:The Harm of Coming Into Existence: The Harm of Coming Into Existence by David Benatar

Author:David Benatar [Benatar, David]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Tags: Philosophy, Nonfiction
ISBN: 9780199296422
Publisher: Clarendon Press
Published: 2006-10-12T18:21:22+00:00

The `expressivist' argument

This `social construction of disability' argument lends support to another disability rights argument, one that has been dubbed the `expressivist' argument.2O According to the expressivist argument, attempts to prevent people with impairments from coming into existence are objectionable because they express an inappropriate and hurtful message. This is the message that lives that are inseparable from impairments are not worth starting and that there should be no more people whose existence is inseparable from such impairments. This message, it is said, perpetuates prejudices about the value of the lives of those who lack sight, hearing, or the use of their legs, for example. To see better why the social construction of disability argument lends support to the expressivist argument, consider racial discrimination. Although race is not a perfect analogy,21 there is some similarity between racial discrimination and discrimination on the basis of inabilities. For example, blacks are often disabled by their skin colour, but this is not because of any inherent property of their skin colour. Instead it is the result of obstacles that particular societies present to blacks. It is widely recognized that the fitting response to this disability is the removal of the obstacles, rather than the suggestion that no more black babies should be born. To the extent that the disabilities of the impaired are socially constructed, the fitting response to these disabilities is the removal of obstacles rather than the suggestion that there should be no more people with such impairments.

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