November 2018 – Joona Räsänen (photo above) is among the latest bioethicists to argue that parents should be permitted to kill their born children. He said in the Bioethics online medical journal that infanticide is not immoral and should be legal:
“[T]here might be an argument that gives, for example, the genetic parents a right to kill (or leave to die) their newborn infant even if the infant has a right to life. For example, it might be argued that people have a right to their genetic privacy and having the newborn infant in the world that carries the genetic material of the genetic parents violates their right to genetic privacy. Put another way: the [child] does not have a right to the genetic material of her parents.”
Räsänen’s claims follow Australian bioethicists who sparked international anger for advocating “after-birth abortion” in situations where “children might be an unbearable burden on the family and on society as a whole, when the state economically provides for their care.”
Princeton bioethicist Peter Singer has likewise argued in favor of infanticide. When asked if he would kill a baby with a disability, Singer answered, “Yes, if that was in the best interests of the baby and of the family as a whole.”
