The Future of the Disabled in Liberal Society : An Ethical Analysis

Preface ix Introduction 1(20) A Paradigmatic Shift 1(3) Widening the Scope of the Debate I 4(5) Widening the Scope of the Debate II 9(3) The Argument 12(9) PART ONE The `Liberal Convention' 21(16) The Context of the Debate 21(1) The `Liberal Convention' 22(2) Implications of Starting with the `Liberal Convention' 24(2) Morality among Strangers 26(4) Instrumentalism, Formalism, or Conventionalism? 30(5) Beyond a Narrow Conception of Morality 35(2) Genetics and Prevention in Public Morality 37(14) Initial Distinctions 37(2) `Morally Permissible' and `Morally Required' 39(1) Preventing Conception and Preventing Birth 40(2) `Impairment', `Disability', and `Handicap' 42(2) `Disease' and `Disability' 44(2) `We' as Individuals and `We' as a Political Community 46(3) Two Questions 49(2) ``The Condition, Not the Person'' 51(15) The Charge of Negative Evaluation 51(2) The DPC Argument 53(3) Actual and Future People 56(1) Evaluating Other People's Lives 57(2) Disability and Identity 59(2) The Fallacy of Geneticization 61(2) What Are Clinical Geneticists Doing? 63(3) Disability, Prevention, and Discrimination 66(18) Negative Side Effects? 67(1) Two Types of Reasons 68(2) Discrimination and Exclusion 70(3) Discrimination and the Value of Life 73(2) The Social Position of the Disabled 75(3) The Future of Disability 78(3) No World without Disabled People 81(3) Restriction on Reproductive Choice? 84(21) `Free Choice' in Human Reproduction 84(2) Restriction of Reproductive Freedom? 86(5) The Charge of Discriminatory Attitudes 91(3) Restrictive Policies against Selective Abortion 94(2) Restrictive Policies to Control Genetic Testing 96(3) Degrees of Seriousness? 99(2) The Weakness of the Liberal Convention 101(4) PART TWO The Inclusion of the Mentally Disabled 105(17) The Moral Standing of Disabled People 105(3) Persons in the Social Sense 108(1) Justice and Beneficence 109(4) Recipients of Justice 113(3) Public Morality as Overlapping Consensus 116(2) The Parasitic Nature of Liberal Morality 118(4) Imperatives of the Self 122(17) Two Claims 122(3) Kenzaburo Oe: A Personal Matter 125(2) An Inward Voyage 127(3) Himiko's Theory 130(2) Constancy and Truthfulness 132(3) Accountability as Self-Narration 135(4) Responsibility for Dependent Others 139(20) On Accepting Responsibility 139(3) `The Ethical Demand' 142(1) Social Norms and Moral Judgment 143(3) `Life as a Gift' 146(2) Convention and Commitment 148(5) Appropriate Motivations 153(6) PART THREE The Presumption of Suffering 159(16) A Remaining Question 159(3) Reasons Regarding Quality of Life 162(2) Ways of Suffering 164(2) Enrichment? In What Way? 166(5) Identification, Not Resignation 171(4) The Transformation Experience 175(18) Incoherent Views? 176(1) The Different Perspectives 177(3) A Capacity for Alienation 180(3) ``From Devastation to Transformation'' 183(4) Transformation and the Power to Respond 187(6) The Meaning of Life in Liberal Society 193(16) Discovered or Made? 193(1) Some Conceptual Clarifications 194(3) Bricoleurs Rather Than Engineers 197(1) Culture as a `Context of Choice' 198(2) The Redundancy of Choice 200(3) Caring for the Disabled in Liberal Society 203(3) Conclusion 206(3) Notes 209(50) Bibliography 259(12) Index 271