ABSTRACT
This chapter presents the second extended case study applying the material gathered in the first five chapters of this book. It investigates our duty of care to people with disability, and what this reveals concerning the fundamental question of the value of human life. We identify a complex cluster of ethical issues concerning pre-natal screening for disability and selective abortion. But the central question concerning the value of disabled lives comes into sharper relief when we consider contemporary philosophical arguments in favour not merely of selective abortion, but of selective infanticide of the disabled. Those arguments are contrasted with the traditional appeal to the sanctity of human life. Here we are unable to avoid the conflict between different world-views. These different perspectives are tested using tools gathered in Chapter Two, and we see reason to reject the view which denies the sanctity of human life. We then consider an interesting argument that our intuitions concerning the value of human life provide some evidence for the truth of the Judaeo-Christian world-view. We conclude by noting the choice we need to make between the two identified, starkly different views concerning our duty of care – towards the disabled, and generally.
