Theo Todman's Web Page - Notes Pages

Personal Identity

Pregnancy

(Text as at 29/12/2019 12:57:36)

(For earlier versions of this Note, see the table at the end)

Plug Note¹

• This topic sounds utterly tangential to my research interests, but I’ve included it because Elselijn Kingma complained – in "Kingma (Elselijn) - BUMP: Better Understanding the Metaphysics of Pregnancy (B1)" – that "Olson (Eric) - The Human Animal - Personal Identity Without Psychology" contained not even a footnote on the topic of pregnancy and the metaphysical issues it raises, in particular for animalism².
• This topic will overlap with that on the status of Fetuses³, as well as with the Notes on Zygotes⁴ and Embryos⁵.
• However, following Kingma, it will focus on the relationship throughout pregnancy between the mother and the fetus. The key question is whether the fetus is a part of the mother or is a separate individual inside her. Additionally, we need to consider whether this status changes during pregnancy.
• I have to admit immediately that (contra Kingma) – my initial view is that the relationship is more “bun” (the “container model”) than “bump” (the “part model”), though this separation seems clearer as pregnancy progresses, following the implantation of the Zygote (prior to which there is clear separation).
• It looks like Kingma’s view is of pregnancy as a case of fusion⁶ followed by fission⁷.
• After careful consideration, I’ve decided I need a Note to discuss Abortion⁸, in so far as I need to consider its relevance to the topic of Personal Identity.
• For a page of Links⁹ to this Note, Click here. There are lots of random references that I’ve ignored, particularly those that focus exclusively on the morality of abortion. However, I’ve tended to include the work if I’ve read it.
• Works on this topic that I’ve actually read¹⁰ include the following:-
  1. "Brody (Baruch) - Abortion and the Sanctity of Human Life: Introduction", Brody
  2. "Finn (Suki) - Bun or bump?", Finn
  3. "Isaac (Sasha) - Is artificial-womb technology a tool for women’s liberation?", Isaac
  4. "Kazez (Jean) - The Philosophical Parent: Asking the Hard Questions About Having and Raising Children", Kazez
  5. "Ludwig (Arnold) - How do we Know who we are? Prologue", Ludwig
• A reading list on this topic probably ought to include a textbook on the medical details of pregnancy, particularly from the mother’s perspective, though I don’t seem to have anything other than the works cited:-
  1. "Davis (Michael) - Fetuses, Famous Violinists, and the Right to Continued Aid", Davis
  2. "English (Jane) - Abortion and the Concept of a Person", English
  3. "Forrester (Mary) - Problems and Persons: Introduction", Forrester
  4. "Kingma (Elselijn) - BUMP: Better Understanding the Metaphysics of Pregnancy (B1)", Kingma
  5. "Kingma (Elselijn) - Were You Part of Your Mother?", Kingma
  6. "Lizza (John) - Persons, Humanity, & the Definition of Death", Lizza₁₁
  7. "Profet (Margie) - Pregnancy sickness as adaptation: A deterrent to maternal ingestion of teratogens", Profet₁₂
  8. "Scott (Rosamund) - The Pregnant Woman and the Good Samaritan: Can a Woman have a Duty to Undergo a Caesarean Section?", Scott
• This is mostly a place-holder¹³.

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In-Page Footnotes:

Footnote 11:

• The item that my algorithms drew my attention to is the possibility of “post-mortem pregnancy”.
• This anomalous notion is motivated by the adoption of “brain death” as the legal or clinical definition of death, where the mother is deemed dead but is evidently sufficiently biologically alive to carry the fetus as far as viability.

Footnote 12:

• Doubtless of very dubious relevance, but you never know.

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Printable Versions:

• Follow (this link) for level 0 (with reading list), and
• Follow (this link) for level 0.

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Table of the Previous 2 Versions of this Note:

Date	Length	Title
10/10/2018 16:43:41	4772	Pregnancy
31/08/2017 19:35:02	1325	Pregnancy

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Note last updated	Reading List for this Topic	Parent Topic
29/12/2019 12:57:36	None available	Fetuses

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Summary of Note Links from this Page

Abortion	Animalism	Awaiting Attention (Personal Identity)	Brain Death	Embryo
Fetuses	Fission	Fusion	Note Links Explanation	Plug Note Apologia
Works Read - Explanation	Zygote

To access information, click on one of the links in the table above.

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Summary of Note Links to this Page

Abortion, 2	Aeon Papers, 2	Animalism - Objections, 2, 3	Status: Personal Identity (2020 - March)	Status: Priority Task List (2020: March)
Status: Summary (2020 - March)	Thesis - Chapter 10 (Thought Experiments)

To access information, click on one of the links in the table above.

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Authors, Books & Papers Citing this Note

Author	Title	Medium	Extra Links	Read?
Beckwith (Francis J.)	Defending Abortion Philosophically: A Review of David Boonin's A Defense of Abortion	Paper
Brody (Baruch)	Abortion and the Sanctity of Human Life: Introduction	Paper	2	Yes
Cooper (Rachel)	Why Hacking is Wrong about Human Kinds	Paper
Davis (Michael)	Fetuses, Famous Violinists, and the Right to Continued Aid	Paper
DeGrazia (David)	Human Identity and Bioethics: Introduction	Paper	2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7	Yes
English (Jane)	Abortion and the Concept of a Person	Paper	2
Fenwick (Peter) & Fenwick (Elizabeth)	The Truth in the Light: An Investigation of Over 300 Near-Death Experiences	Book		Yes
Finn (Suki)	Bun or bump?	Paper	2, 3, 4, 5	Yes
Ford (Norman)	The Human Individual Begins After Implantation	Paper
Forrester (Mary)	Problems and Persons: Introduction	Paper	2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14
Forrester (Mary)	The Central Feature of Personhood	Paper
Grobstein (Clifford)	Science and the Unborn: Choosing Human Futures	Paper
Hershenov (David)	How a Hylomorphic Metaphysics Constrains the Abortion Debate	Paper
Isaac (Sasha)	Is artificial-womb technology a tool for women’s liberation?	Paper		Yes
Jones (D. Gareth)	The Human Embryo: Between Oblivion and Meaningful Life	Paper
Kazez (Jean)	The Philosophical Parent: Asking the Hard Questions About Having and Raising Children	Paper	2, 3, 4, 5	Yes
Kingma (Elselijn)	BUMP: Better Understanding the Metaphysics of Pregnancy (B1)	Paper	2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58	Yes
Koritansky (Peter)	The Role of Philosophy in the Contemporary Abortion Debate.	Paper	2
Lizza (John)	Persons, Humanity, & the Definition of Death	Book
Ludwig (Arnold)	How do we Know who we are? Prologue	Paper	2, 3, 4	Yes
Malinowska (Kasia) & Medley (Bethany)	Want to reduce drug use? Listen to women drug users	Paper		Yes
Marquis (Don)	Why Abortion is Immoral	Paper
McMahan (Jeff)	Beginnings	Paper
Parsons (Tony)	The Family Way	Book	2, 3
Profet (Margie)	Pregnancy sickness as adaptation: A deterrent to maternal ingestion of teratogens	Paper	2
Scott (Rosamund)	The Pregnant Woman and the Good Samaritan: Can a Woman have a Duty to Undergo a Caesarean Section?	Paper	2, 3, 4, 5, 6
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Abortion	Paper	2	Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Animalism - Objections	Paper	2, 3	Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Chapter 10 (Thought Experiments)	Paper		Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Pregnancy	Paper		Yes
Vehmas (Simo)	Is it Wrong to Deliberately Conceive or Give Birth to a Child with Mental Retardation?	Paper
Velleman (David)	Beyond Price: Essays on Life and Death - Introduction	Paper		Yes
Warner (Marina)	Alone of All Her Sex: The Myth and Cult of the Virgin Mary	Book
Westcott (Brooke Foss)	An Introduction to the Study of the Gospels	Book
Wiseman (P.J.)	The Colophon	Paper

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References & Reading List

Author	Title	Medium	Source	Read?
Barkow (Jerome), Cosmides (Leda) & Tooby (John), Eds.	The Adapted Mind: Evolutionary Psychology and the Generation of Culture	Book - Cited (via Paper Cited)	Bibliographical details to be supplied	2%
Brody (Baruch)	Abortion and the Sanctity of Human Life : a Philosophical View	Book - Cited (via Paper Cited)	Bibliographical details to be supplied	5%
Brody (Baruch)	Abortion and the Sanctity of Human Life: Introduction	Paper - Cited	Brody - Abortion and the Sanctity of Human Life : a Philosophical View, 1975, Introduction	Yes
Davis (Michael)	Fetuses, Famous Violinists, and the Right to Continued Aid	Paper - Cited	Philosophical Quarterly, 1983, Vol. 33 Issue 132, p259-278, 20p	No
English (Jane)	Abortion and the Concept of a Person	Paper - Cited	Canadian Journal of Philosophy, V, Oct. 1975, pp. 233-243	No
Finn (Suki)	Bun or bump?	Paper - Cited	Aeon, 27 July, 2017	Yes
Forrester (Mary)	Persons, Animals, and Fetuses: An Essay in Practical Ethics	Book - Cited (via Paper Cited)	Bibliographical details to be supplied	7%
Forrester (Mary)	Problems and Persons: Introduction	Paper - Cited	Forrester - Persons, Animals, and Fetuses: An Essay in Practical Ethics, 1996, Introduction	33%
Hains (Brigid) & Hains (Paul)	Aeon: C-F	Book - Cited (via Paper Cited)	Bibliographical details to be supplied	41%
Hains (Brigid) & Hains (Paul)	Aeon: G-K	Book - Cited (via Paper Cited)	Bibliographical details to be supplied	34%
Isaac (Sasha)	Is artificial-womb technology a tool for women’s liberation?	Paper - Cited	Aeon, 18 December, 2019	Yes
Kazez (Jean)	The Philosophical Parent: Asking the Hard Questions About Having and Raising Children	Book - Cited (via Paper Cited)	Bibliographical details to be supplied	Yes
Kazez (Jean)	The Philosophical Parent: Asking the Hard Questions About Having and Raising Children	Paper - Cited	Kazez (Jean) - The Philosophical Parent: Asking the Hard Questions About Having and Raising Children	Yes
Kingma (Elselijn)	BUMP: Better Understanding the Metaphysics of Pregnancy (B1)	Paper - Cited	Southampton University Website	Yes
Kingma (Elselijn)	Were You Part of Your Mother?	Paper - Cited	Mind (In Press, 18 December 2019)	Yes
Lizza (John)	Persons, Humanity, & the Definition of Death	Book - Cited	Lizza (John) - Persons, Humanity, & the Definition of Death	4%
Ludwig (Arnold)	How do we Know who we are? A Biography of the Self	Book - Cited (via Paper Cited)	Bibliographical details to be supplied	5%
Ludwig (Arnold)	How do we Know who we are? Prologue	Paper - Cited	Ludwig - How do we Know who we are? A Biography of the Self	Yes
Olson (Eric)	The Human Animal - Personal Identity Without Psychology	Book - Cited	Olson (Eric) - The Human Animal - Personal Identity Without Psychology	Yes
Profet (Margie)	Pregnancy sickness as adaptation: A deterrent to maternal ingestion of teratogens	Paper - Cited	Barkow, Cosmides & Tooby - The Adapted Mind, 1992, Chapter 8	No
Scott (Rosamund)	The Pregnant Woman and the Good Samaritan: Can a Woman have a Duty to Undergo a Caesarean Section?	Paper - Cited	Oxford Journal of Legal Studies, Volume 20, Number 3, 2000, pp. 407-436(30)	No

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Text Colour Conventions

1. Black: Printable Text by me; © Theo Todman, 2020
2. Blue: Text by me; © Theo Todman, 2020

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