The duty to respect mentally incapacitated humans or nonh... — Carmelics

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The duty to respect mentally incapacitated humans or nonhuman animals is only an indirect duty

Moral Responsibility Virtue Ethics

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Reasons For

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Reason for

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1.Treating such beings decently is a way of respecting persons who value such beings
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2.Our duty to respect ourselves requires that we not engage in activities that would dull our ability to treat persons decently
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Reasons Against

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Reason against 1 of 2

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1.Kantian dignity admits of degrees grounded in rational nature, but Christine Korsgaard argues that subjective valuation of one's own life suffices for direct moral standing.
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2.If the capacity to have a welfare that can go better or worse grounds moral considerability, then severely cognitively impaired humans and sentient animals qualify directly.
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3.Reducing their moral status to indirect duties generates the 'argument from marginal cases,' which symmetrically threatens the direct status of humans with comparable capacities.
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Reason against 2 of 2

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