Emily Dobson

This project takes a comprehensive approach to the application of life-value ethics to matters of disability. I overview the philosophical foundation of my approach, life-value ethics, in its different dimensions. I explore the distinction between life-requirements and need-satisfiers. Life-requirements are the fundamental needs shared by all human being whereas need-satisfiers are the tools by which we access our life-requirements in specific circumstances. After exploring this philosophical groundwork, I address the social, medical, and value-neutral models of disability. I support a synthesis of the social and medical models of disability, but I believe that Elizabeth Barnes's value-neutral model in its rejection of the idea that being disabled is necessarily bad helps to overcome the medicalized belief that the only way to fully realize life-value is to eliminate disability. Hence, it is primarily the value-neutral model that I use to show how a life-value approach can address matters of accessibility and accommodation. As a way of demonstrating the merits of a life-value approach, I apply life-value ethics to the recent policies banning single-use plastic straws. Even though plastic straws do not represent the biggest threat to the environment, they are a primary target of environmentalist initiatives to reduce the amount of plastic waste entering our oceans. It can be shown that plastic straws act as need-satisfiers for disabled people with neurological and muscular impairments. In addition, I contend that by using the concept of coherent inclusivity, we can show that making these need-satisfiers accessible to the public will not only avoid causing harm, but will also help to provide alternative need-satisfiers to our ageing population.

Life-grounded ethics aims to ground the basis for value in life. In order for a universal application of an ethical code to be possible, it ought to be grounded in the needs that are required for life itself, whether the needs are those of human beings, other animals, or the environment. However, while life-grounded ethics takes a wide approach to satisfying those needs, and allows for the independence and diversity of all cultures and backgrounds, often the conception of a good life is bound up with with ideas of meaningful work that tend to limit contribution to labour. The concept of contribution being linked exclusively to work denies those who are unable to work from being seen as contributors in their communities, and thus fails to recognize that they too can lead a good life. A life-grounded approach, which broadens the conception of what counts as contribution, can not only remove the stigma from those who may be unable to work, but can help to break down the barriers that prevent people with disabilities from participating in their communities.This approach acknowledges that the ways in which those with disabilities are active in their communities will depend on their own experiences, and that meeting the specific avenues through which they access life-needs will take equal consideration. Keywords: life-value, disability, contribution, interdisciplinary.