Fairness and the Puzzle of Disability
Greg Bognar (La Trobe University)

September 11, 2014, 12:15pm - 2:15pm
Department of Philosophy, University of Melbourne

Room G16 (Jim Potter Room)
Old Physics Building, Parkville Campus
Melbourne
Australia

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Abstract: Consider two cases.  In Case 1, you must decide whether you save the life of a disabled person or you save the life of a person with no disability.  In Case 2, you must decide whether you save the life of a disabled person who would remain disabled, or you save the life of another disabled person who,in contrast, would also be cured as a result of your intervention.  It seems that most people agree that you should give equal chances in Case 1: saving the life of the person with no disability would be unfair discrimination against the person with disability.  Yet, in Case 2, it appears that many people believe that you are at least permitted to save straightaway the person who would have no disability after your intervention.  There would be no unfair discrimination against the other person.

I argue that these judgments present a puzzle for theories of resource allocation in normative ethics.  The puzzle is straightforward for consequentialists: the two cases have the same outcomes, but the judgments are different.  But the puzzle also presents a problem for nonconsequentialist views.  After introducing the cases, I show this by reviewing a number of proposals for solving the puzzle.  I argue that none of these proposals are successful.  Alas, I won't propose a solution of my own; the best I can offer are some general remarks at the end.

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