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31Forced to Listen to the Heart: Fetal Heartbeat Laws and Autonomous AbortionsSouthwest Philosophy Review 30 (1): 187-194. 2014.Among the various proposed ultrasound laws, a few have provisions that either provide the option for the pregnant woman to hear the heartbeat or require that the heartbeat be played and merely give the woman the option to somehow avert her ears. I will argue that these heartbeat provisions actually belie the argument that these laws are intended to assist autonomous choosing. Since the information could be provided just as easily through a factual statement , it cannot be justified to involve em…Read more
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53Chasing Secretariat's Consent: The Impossibility of Permissible Animal SportsBetween the Species 21 (1). 2018.Tom Regan argued that animal sports cannot be morally permissible because they are cruel and the animals do not voluntarily participate. While Regan is correct about actual animal sports, we should ask whether substantially revised animal sports could be permissible. We can imagine significant changes to certain animal sports, such as horse racing, that would avoid cruelty and even allow the animals to make their own choices. Where alternative options are freely available, we can consider the ho…Read more
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16Sour Clinical Trials: Autonomy and Adaptive Preferences in Experimental MedicineIn Juha Räikkä & Jukka Varelius (eds.), Adaptation and Autonomy: Adaptive Preferences in Enhancing and Ending Life, Springer. pp. 101--115. 2013.
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52Autonomous PigsEthics and the Environment 22 (1): 1-18. 2017.It is well established that nonhuman animals are sentient, have feelings, have desires, and are conscious. For many of us, some set of those points is sufficient to ground moral duties to nonhuman animals. Yet, others retain doubts about whether humans have such duties. Perhaps these doubters set even higher standards—standards that they believe nonhuman animals are incapable of meeting. The task of this paper is to consider how nonhuman animals fare against an incredibly high standard for moral…Read more
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116Autonomy Within Subservient CareersEthical Theory and Moral Practice 14 (3): 313-328. 2011.While there is much literature on autonomy and the conditions for its attainment, there is less on how those conditions reflect on agents’ ordinary careers. Most people’s careers involve a great deal of subservient activity that would prevent the kind of control over agents’ actions that autonomy would seem to require. Yet, it would seem strange to deny autonomy to every agent who regularly follows orders at work—to do so would make autonomy a futile ideal. Most contemporary autonomy accounts pr…Read more
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33Unauthorized but PermittedPhilosophy in the Contemporary World 20 (1): 1-14. 2013.While politicians seek to increase punitive measures against so-called "illegal aliens," it is worth asking whether unauthorized immigrants are obligated by immigration laws that would demand their punishment, whether it is deportation or jail time. I seek to examine this question in light of the traditional defenses of legal obligations: consent, prudential interest, and fairness. Due to the various ways in which the benefits of society are largely excluded from them and the severe penalties th…Read more
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72Kantian Respect for Minimally Rational AnimalsSocial Theory and Practice 41 (2): 309-327. 2015.Immanuel Kant, in a much-maligned view, thought that we could only have indirect duties to nonhuman animals who have no inherent moral value since they lack rationality. While there are various responses to this worrisome position, no one seems to consider that animals could conceivably qualify as having rationality, even on Kantian high standards. Animals engage in various activities that could be taken as indicators of the core aspects of rationality that Kant requires for having absolute wort…Read more
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68Autonomous Abortions: The Inhibiting of Women's Autonomy through Legal Ultrasound RequirementsKennedy Institute of Ethics Journal 22 (1): 35-58. 2012.Recently, we have seen various proposed laws that would require that women considering abortions be given ultrasounds along with explanations of these ultrasounds. Proponents of these laws could argue that they are assisting with autonomous abortion choices by providing needed information, especially about the ontological status of the fetus. Arguing against these proposed laws, I first claim that their supporters fail to appreciate how personalized an abortion choice must be. Second, I argue th…Read more
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62The Sexual Harassment Coercive OfferJournal of Applied Philosophy 28 (2): 203-216. 2010.There is disagreement in the coercion literature over whether an offer, which necessarily lacks a threat, could be coercive, which tends to imply at least some affinity with coercion, which, in paradigm cases, includes a threat. In one difficult sexual harassment case, someone is offered a promotion in exchange for sex, but there is, due to the arrangement of the case, no implied threat or repercussion for refusal. I argue this case counts as coercive since the offer-making attempts to recast th…Read more
UCLA
Department Of Philosophy
Alumnus
Baton Rouge, Louisiana, United States of America