I will argue the free market in babies or in women's bodies created by an institution of paid surrogate motherhood is contrary to Kantian principles of personhood and to the feminist principle that men do not have-and cannot gain through contract, marriage, or payment of money-a right to the sexual or reproductive use of women's bodies.

Reproductive medicine, a sector of a health care system increasingly captured by the demands of the marketplace, is enmeshed in a drive to sell certain human bits and pieces, such as gametes, cells, fetal eggs, and fetal ovaries, for reproductive purposes. The ethical objection raised by Kant and Radin to the sale of human organs -that this is incompatible with human dignity and worth - also applies to these sales. Moreover, such sales nullify the reproductive paradigm, irretrievably replacing it with (...) a ma nufacturing paradigm. This represents a change in kind, not just of degree, in the way that we view our capacity to generate children and destroys our concept of reproduction as an essentially human activity. In the face of a struggle to retain those common ethical values at the foundation of reproductive medicine, this form of commodification of the human body should be viewed as ethically unacceptable. (shrink)

ABSTRACT This essay considers a common objection to commercial surrogacy on the grounds that the child is treated as a commodity for sale by the surrogate and the commissioning couple. I analyse one prevalent argument for the view that commercial surrogacy is a kind of baby‐selling, not service‐selling. I conclude that this argument rests on an implausible interpretation of what the reproductive services are. I defend an alternative interpretation of typical surrogacy agreements. Furthermore, I argue that this interpretation (...) fails to support the conclusion that the surrogate is primarily or exclusively selling a baby, rather than her reproductive services. My primary concern is to diagnose a conceptual error in an argument against surrogacy. However, the interpretation of surrogacy arrangements that is defended helps to shift the focus from the issue of whether or not the child is degraded to the issue of whether or not the surrogate degrades herself or is degraded by the commissioning couple. (shrink)

Thus, there is a compelling policy argument as well as a suggestive constitutional argument that the practice of selling parental rights in general, and in particular the practice of commercial surrogacy, should not be permitted. These arguments favor the approach adopted in New York State as opposed to any more latitudinarian approach that would permit commercial surrogacy. Clearly, if the payment of money in exchange for parental rights should be prohibited, then we have a strong basis on which to (...) reject the intentionalist theory, along with any other theory tht would link the parentage of a child with the payment of money. This conclusion is in no way undermined by the various arguments recited in part V above that favor the intentionalist theory since, as we have seen, these arguments are flawed. (shrink)

Pese a que las publicaciones sobre el tema de la universidad se cuentan por centenares, ninguna denuncia los principales vicios universitarios, en exceso persistentes. En este trabajo se describen doce de ellos, tal vez los más relevantes y asiduos: la retórica sofistica, el culturalismo, la democracia intelectual, la libertad sin verdad, el escepticismo, emotivismo y relativismo, la ética sin religión, la soberbia o suficiencia engreída, la rivalidad envidiosa, el fideísmo y la pereza mental. Tras su exposición y ejemplificación se ofrecen (...) pautas para superarlos. (shrink)

Presentación del editor: "Teoría del conocimiento es la disciplina filosófica que estudia cómo es el conocer humano y cuáles son sus niveles. El conocimiento se da en planos distintos, organizados y jerarquizados: no es lo mismo ver un árbol, que recordarlo o imaginarlo, también es distinto el acto cognoscitivo que lo entiende, lo valora o lo distingue de otras realidades. Son actos diversos, más o menos intensos y elevados. Aquí se estudian los cuatro niveles del conocer humano: el sensible, el (...) racional, el intelectual y el personal. Asimismo, se estudia la verdad y la rectificación de los errores más habituales contra ella, así como los tres errores básicos contra el conocimiento de la misma: el relativismo, el escepticismo y el subjetivismo. Se resumen también las tres propuestas noéticas que más han influido en la historia de la filosofía: el nominalismo, el idealismo y el realismo. Se estudian finalmente los diversos saberes y ciencias, que responden también ordenadamente a los diversos niveles del conocimiento humano.". (shrink)