The common liberal understanding of reproductive autonomy – characterized by free choice and a principle of non-interference – serves as a useful way to analyse the normative appeal of having certain choices open to people in the reproductive realm, especially for issues like abortion rights. However, this liberal reading of reproductive autonomy only offers us a limited ethical understanding of what is at stake in many kinds of reproductive choices, particularly when it comes to (...) different uses of reproductive technologies and third-party reproduction. This is because the liberal framework does not fully capture who benefits from which reproductive options, the extent of the risks and harms involved in various reproductive interventions, and the reasons for why people are driven to make certain reproductive choices. (shrink)

Emerging reprogenetic technologies may radically change how humans reproduce in the not-so-distant future. One foreseeable consequence of disruptive innovations in the procreative domain is an increase in the reproductive autonomy of intended parents. Regarding the prospective parental liberty of enhancing non-health–related traits of the offspring, one controversy has particularly dominated the literature. Does parents' choice of genetically enhancing the traits of their descendants compromise children's future personal autonomy? In this article, I will analyse the main arguments which (...) posit that reprogenetic enhancement could be at odds with the child's future autonomy. I will argue that these objections are ill-founded. Moreover, I will present other arguments that show that reprogenetic technologies can enhance the autonomy of future children. Autonomy enhancement is a plausible and pro tanto desirable application of emerging reprogenetic technologies. (shrink)

There are conceptual and ethical challenges to defining adolescents’ autonomy to access health care, and these can lead to health care norms and practices that could be maladjusted to the needs and preferences of adolescents. Particularly sensitive is access to sexual and reproductive health care services (SRHS). Yet, while there has been substantial conceptual work to conceptualize autonomy (e.g., as independence), there is a lack of empirical research that documents the perceptions of adolescents regarding on how they (...) access or wish to access health care services. The main objectives of this research were to (a) understand how adolescents in Colombia interpret the concept of “autonomy,” (b) describe how these adolescents articulate their autonomy (i.e., preferences) in accessing SRHS, and (c) analyze the ethical issues emerging from these data. Forty-five semi-structured interviews were conducted with participants aged 14 to 23 years old in the Departments of Antioquia and Valle del Cauca in Colombia. Our study showed that participants’ understanding of autonomy was context-based and highly dependent on personal experiences, and these influenced their choice in how to access SRHS. Seen through the ethical lens of a reproductive justice framework, our results highlight the unequal opportunities for adolescents in terms of autonomy to access SRHS. (shrink)

This study’s objective was to understand Colombian adolescents’ experiences and preferences regarding access to sexual and reproductive health services (SRHS), either alone or accompanied. A mixed-method approach was used, involving a survey of 812 participants aged eleven to twenty-four years old and forty-five semi-structured interviews with participants aged fourteen to twenty-three. Previous research shows that adolescents prefer privacy when accessing SRHS and often do not want their parents involved. Such findings align with the longstanding tendency to frame the ethical (...) principle of autonomy as based on independence in decision-making. However, the present study shows that such a conceptualization and application of autonomy does not adequately explain Colombian adolescent participants’ preferences regarding access to SRHS. Participants shared a variety of preferences to access SRHS, with the majority of participants attaching great importance to having their parents involved, to varying degrees. What emerges is a more complex and non-homogenous conceptualization of autonomy that is not inherently grounded in independence from parental involvement in access to care. We thus argue that when developing policies involving adolescents, policymakers and health professionals should adopt a nuanced “relational autonomy” approach to better respect the myriad of preferences that Colombian (and other) adolescents may have regarding their access to SRHS. (shrink)

Proponents of human reproductive cloning do not dispute that cloning may lead to violations of clones' right to self-determination, or that these violations could cause psychological harms. But they proceed with their endorsement of human reproductive cloning by dismissing these psychological harms, mainly in two ways. The first tactic is to point out that to commit the genetic fallacy is indeed a mistake; the second is to invoke Parfit's non-identity problem. The argument of this paper is that neither (...) approach succeeds in removing our moral responsibility to consider and to prevent psychological harms to cloned individuals. In fact, the same commitment to personal liberty that generates the right to reproduce by means of cloning also creates the need to limit that right appropriately. Discussion of human reproductive cloning ought to involve a careful and balanced consideration of both the relevant aspects of personal liberty – the parents' right to reproductive freedom and the cloned child's right to self-determination. (shrink)

Ableist attitudes and structures regarding disability are increasingly recognized across all sectors of healthcare delivery. After Dobbs, novel questions arose in the USA concerning how to protect reproductive autonomy while avoiding discrimination against and devaluation of disabled persons. As a case study, we examine the Louisiana’s Department of Public Health August 1st Emergency Declaration, “List of Conditions that shall deem an Unborn Child ‘Medically Futile.’” We raise a number of medical, ethical, and public health concerns that lead us (...) to argue the declaration should be rescinded. The ethically objectionable declaration provides valuable lessons concerning how to uphold both reproductive and disability justice in a post-Dobbs landscape. (shrink)

The recent spectacular progress in assisted reproductive technologies (ARTs) has resulted in new ethical dilemmas. Though women occupy a central role in the reproductive process, within the ART paradigm, the importance accorded to the embryo commonly surpasses that given to the mother. This commentary questions the increasing tendency to position the embryonic subject in an antagonistic relation with the mother. I examine how the mother’s reproductive autonomy is compromised in relation to that of her embryo and (...) argue in favour of doing away with the subject-object dyad between them, particularly in the contexts of surrogacy and abortion. I also engage with the Surrogacy (Regulation) Bill, 2016. A critical discussion of the privacy judgment passed by the Supreme Court of India helps examine how personal autonomy of the body and mind extends to include the reproductive autonomy of women as well. (shrink)

The potential emergence of morally relevant digital minds capable of reproduction raises profound ethical and societal questions. This paper analyses the possible implications of allowing these entities to replicate and create new offspring. The reproductive processes of digital minds may differ significantly from biological reproduction, presenting unique scenarios such as asexual (mass-) production of identical copies as well as structured self-modification. Moreover, scenarios, such as unintended reproduction, surrogate reproduction, non-consensual reproduction as well as reproduction with undesired outcomes, are examined (...) for their ethical ramifications. Motivations, requirements and procedures for digital minds to reproduce as well as population control methods are introduced and categorised. This leads to deliberations of risks and challenges linked to the reproduction of digital minds, including resource depletion, digital overcrowding and the emergence of rogue digital entities. The paper concludes with a draft of prospective policy recommendations aimed at ensuring responsible governance of reproductive rights for digital minds, balancing their autonomy and self-determination with the potential societal impacts of unregulated digital reproduction. (shrink)

Sterilisation requests made by young, childfree adults are frequently denied by doctors, despite sterilisation being legally available to individuals over the age of 18. A commonly given reason for denied requests is that the patient will later regret their decision. In this paper I examine whether the possibility of future regret is a good reason for denying a sterilisation request. I argue that it is not and hence that decision-competent adults who have no desire to have children should have their (...) requests approved. It is a condition of being recognised as autonomous that a person ought to be permitted to make decisions that they might later regret, provided that their decision is justified at the time that it is made. There is also evidence to suggest that sterilisation requests made by men are more likely to be approved than requests made by women, even when age and number of children are factored in. This may indicate that attitudes toward sterilisation are influenced by gender discourses that define women in terms of reproduction and mothering. If this is the case, then it is unjustified and should be addressed. There is no good reason to judge people’s sterilisation requests differently in virtue of their gender. (shrink)

Objective Our study sought to (1) describe the practices and preferences of Colombian adolescents in accessing sexual and reproductive health services: accompanied versus alone; (2) compare actual practices with stated preferences; and (3) determine age and gender differences regarding the practice and these stated preferences. -/- Methods 812 participants aged 11–24 years old answered a survey in two Profamilia clinics in the cities of Medellin and Cali in Colombia. A cross-sectional analysis was performed to compare participants’ answers based on (...) the variables of gender and age. -/- Results A quarter of participants visited the clinic alone (25.4%). Females were more likely to go alone in comparison to males (26.3% vs 14.1%; p = 0.031), and older participants went alone more often than younger participants (p < 0.001). Most participants – 72.7% (95 %CI: 69.3–75.9) – expressed a preference in being accompanied to the clinic, and more than 90% had their preferences met. The preferences of older participants were, however, less likely to be met than those of younger participants (p < 0.001), notably, because they predominantly wanted to be accompanied. -/- Conclusion Contemporary public health and bioethics literature advocates in favor of developing health services that better meet the preferences of adolescents. The present research highlights an apparent blind spot related to the role that others (e.g., parents, friends, partners) can or should play in accompanying adolescent patients when they access sexual and reproductive health services. Respecting adolescents’ preferences, and hence their autonomy, is not simply a matter of ensuring freedom from constraints (e.g., their right and ability to go alone). Rather, it should also consider the liberty to choose whether to be accompanied when accessing SHRS and by whom. (shrink)

English-speaking research on morally right decisions in a healthcare context over the past three decades has been dominated by two major perspectives, namely, the Four Principles, of which the principle of respect for autonomy has been most salient, and the ethic of care, often presented as a rival to not only a focus on autonomy but also a reliance on principles more generally. In my contribution, I present a novel ethic applicable to bioethics, particularly as it concerns human (...) procreation, that I argue is a promising alternative to these two approaches. According to this new moral theory, an act is right just insofar as it treats people’s capacity to commune with respect, where communing is a matter of identifying with others and exhibiting solidarity with them. This ethic is inspired by relational ideals of communion and harmony from the African philosophical tradition, but is shown to be attractive to a broad, indeed global, audience, with regard to its implications for the morality of reproduction. (shrink)

“Bodily autonomy” has received significant attention in bioethics, medical ethics, and medical law in terms of the general inviolability of a patient’s bodily sovereignty and the rights of patients to make choices (e.g., reproductive choices) that concern their own body. However, the role of the body in terms of how it can or does contribute to a patient’s capacity for, or exercises of their autonomy in clinical decision-making situations has not been explicitly addressed. The approach to (...) class='Hi'>autonomy in this paper is aligned with traditional theories that conceive autonomy in terms of an individual’s capacities for, and exercises of rational reflection. However, at the same time, this paper extends these accounts by arguing that autonomy is, in part, embodied. Specifically, by drawing on phenomenological conceptions of the experience of autonomy, we argue that, in principle, the body is a necessary component of the capacity for autonomy. Secondly, through the presentation of two different cases, we highlight ways in which a patient’s body can contribute to the autonomy of treatment choices. Ultimately, we hope to encourage others to explore additional conditions under which a concept of embodied autonomy should be employed in medical decision making, how its underlying principles might be operationalised in clinical situations, and its consequences for approaches to patient autonomy in healthcare practice, policy, and law. (shrink)

This article synthesizes the current theoretical attempts to understand human-machine interactions and introduces seven premises to understand our emerging dynamics with increasingly competent, pervasive, and instantly accessible algorithms. The hope that these seven premises can build toward a social theory of human-AI cocreation. The focus on human-AI cocreation is intended to emphasize two factors. First, is the fact that our machine learning systems are socialized. Second, is the coevolving nature of human mind and AI systems as smart devices form an (...) indispensable part of our cognitive scaffolds, thus, shaping how we perceive the world and ourselves. The seven premises include: primacy of social structures; human’s desire for freedom and autonomy; AI systems will form inseparable parts of our cognitive/affective scaffolds and can change our self-understanding; philosophy and humanistic foundations on human flourishing as a guide to human-AI interaction; mindsponge information-filtering process; acculturative process of how values change and emerge from human-AI interaction; overlapping Venn diagram of the human-human, human-nature, and human-machine interactions. This article concludes with a discussion on human agency in our entanglements with socialized machines and the illusoriness of the Cartesian agent view of the mind. (shrink)

Synthetic DNA technologies may eventually enable the creation of synthetic gametes, which would offer precise control over genetic inheritance. This possibility raises profound ethical questions about human identity, genetic selection, and evolutionary boundaries. While synthetic gametes sidestep person-affecting ethical concerns, they present challenges for balancing reproductive autonomy and minimizing heritable disease, prompting interdisciplinary reflection.

Kenneth Einar Himma (2009, 2016) argues that the existence of Hell renders procreation impermissible. Jason Marsh (2015) contends that problems of evil motivate anti-natalism. Anti-natalism is principally rejected for its perceived conflict with reproductive rights. I propose a theistic solution to the latter problem. Universalism says that all persons will, postmortem, eventually be eternally housed in Heaven, a superbly good place wherein harm is fully absent. The acceptance of universalism is now widespread, but I offer further reason to embrace (...) one variant of it. If universalism is true and there are opportunities to procreate in Heaven, then reproductive autonomy is largely preserved for everyone. Assuming Heaven is a harm-free place, there are no risks to children born in Heaven, unlike Earth or Hell. While this requires human persons to accept temporary restrictions on procreation during our premortem lives, the bulk of reproductive autonomy is preserved since one will have infinite opportunities to reproduce in Heaven. (shrink)

Assisted reproductive technologies have greatly increased our control over reproductive choices, leading some bioethicists to argue that we face unprecedented moral obligations towards progeny. Several models attempting to balance the principle of procreative autonomy with these obligations have been proposed. The least demanding is the minimal threshold model (MTM), according to which every reproductive choice is permissible, except creating children whose lives will not be worth living. Hence, as long as the future child is likely to (...) have a life worth living, prospective parents may be allowed to use preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) to select embryos with genetic diseases or disabilities. Assuming a consequentialist person‐affecting view of morality, this paper investigates whether the MTM is an appropriate tool to guide procreative decisions given the continuous development of reproductive genetic technologies. In particular, I consider germline genome editing (GGE) and I argue that its application in human reproduction, unlike PGD, should be conceived as person‐affecting towards future progeny. I claim that even if we assume the plausibility of the MTM within PGD, we are committed to accepting that a greater moral obligation towards progeny should guide procreative decisions if GGE were available. In this case, the MTM should no longer be considered an appropriate instrument to guide procreative choices. Finally, I investigate when we face this greater moral obligation, concluding that it applies only when prospective parents have already engaged in the in vitro fertilization process. (shrink)

Philosophers of technology have identified various mechanisms through which technology can change moral norms, values, beliefs and practices. Danaher and Sætra ( 2023 ) offer a useful systematization of these mechanisms, with no claim to being exhaustive. We contribute to their work by analyzing how the mediating role of moral concepts fits into this scheme. First, we point out that concepts mediate the moral effects of technological changes, a process we call conceptual mediation. We illustrate this with the concepts of (...) ‘brain death’ and ‘reproductive autonomy’, whose moral implications crystallized in the interplay with new medical technologies. Subsequently, we argue that conceptual mediation is best understood as a type of second-order mediation, which channels the moral implications of the first-order technological mediations identified by Danaher and Sætra (decisional, relational, perceptual). We conclude that second-order mediation plays a central and underappreciated role in processes of technomoral change. (shrink)

Understanding the ethical concerns of paid and altruistic surrogacy requires a knowledge of reproductive freedom and procreative autonomy. An accurate approach must be sensitive enough of the nature of sexual oppression, specifically in its influence in women’s choices, self-identity and personal relationships. The aim of this essay is to stand up for the prominence of radical feminism in questioning reproductive liberalism, which overfocus the interests of the so-called intended parents. Having in mind what egalitarian philosophers have put (...) forward from a social-relational autonomy view to allow surrogacy contracts under certain circumstances —particularly, they suggest that legalization could be compatible with women’s reproductive autonomy following an altruistic fashion under protective measures and supportive to the surrogate’s revocation of consent—, I uphold that radical feminists properly make clear how oppression remains in the cultural environment that endorses surrogacy contracts. A macroscopic methodology, based on American philosopher’s Marilyn Frye metaphor of the caged bird, is a helpful tool to comprehend why surrogacy contracts do not enhance women’s reproductive autonomy, even if they enable some surrogate mothers to gain an income enough to endure tough economic pressure. (shrink)

Scholars in philosophy of medicine and bioethics have recently turned their attention to transformative experiences: experiences that teach something new that one could not have known before having the experience, while simultaneously changing one as a person. Sanne Elisa van der Marck recently argued, drawing on the work of Fiona Woollard, that the subjective experience of pregnancy should be included in moral debates on abortion, since pregnancy is a transformative experience. Van der Marck implicitly suggested that such a view strengthens (...) autonomy-based pro-choice abortion arguments because only pregnant people have crucial knowledge of what it is like to be pregnant. However, as I will show, the upshot of her argument is that it undermines the autonomy-based pro-choice arguments. This is because if pregnancy is a transformative experience, then it becomes increasingly difficult to give informed consent for abortion, since only by going through pregnancy would one gain the knowledge of ‘what it is like’ that is necessary to make the rational choice of having the abortion in the first place. Thus, her argument has a counterintuitive conclusion—it limits rather than reinforces reproductive autonomy. (shrink)

Zygotes are persisting organisms. That is, zygotes are organisms and most born human beings are identical to the zygotes from which they originated. I defend these claims against recent critiques. Chunghyoung Lee, for example, argues that for any zygote, z, z may develop into one of several, numerically distinct infants. If so, then for any infant, that infant is not identical to the zygote from which they originated. If Lee is correct, then zygotes are like gametes, which may give rise (...) to mature human beings, but cease to exist along the way. This, Lee claims, suggests that zygotes are not organisms. I respond that Lee (like many others) confuses zygotic parts with whole zygotes. The error lies in identifying zygotes (and embryos) with their inner contents alone. Zygotes are more than their internal parts, however, just as the reader is more than their heart, lungs, and kidneys. To advance these claims, I defend a version of “zona-essentialism,” which maintains that the zona pellucida—the membrane surrounding zygotes and early embryos—is essential to their identity during early stages of life. By distinguishing between zygotic parts and whole zygotes, I show that Lee’s (and others’) arguments fail to establish that zygotes are not organisms. I conclude by discussing practical implications for finding that zygotes are human organisms. Clinicians and researchers must embrace reality: individual humans are routinely killed in the name of scientific advancement and reproductive autonomy. Failure to acknowledge this—e.g., by using euphemisms to obscure the truth—is problematic. (shrink)

What role should legislation or policy play in avoiding the complications of in-vitro fertilization? In this article, we focus on single versus double embryo transfer, and assess three arguments in favour of mandatory single embryo transfer: risks to the mother, risks to resultant children, and costs to society. We highlight significant ethical concerns about each of these. Reproductive autonomy and non-paternalism are strong enough to outweigh the health concerns for the woman. Complications due to non-identity cast doubt on (...) the extent to which children are harmed. Twinning may offer an overall benefit rather than burden to society. Finally, including the future health costs for children in reproductive policy is inconsistent with other decisions. We conclude that mandatory single embryo transfer is not justified and that a number of countries should reconsider their current embryo transfer policy. (shrink)

Public defenses of abortion rights frequently rely on characterising early embryos as “just clumps of cells,” invoking a notion of moral thinness to reject compelled gestation and protect bodily autonomy. This abstraction, however, has been quietly repurposed within assisted reproductive technologies — especially in vitro fertilisation (IVF) — to morally sanitise the bulk production, selection, cryogenic storage, and routine destruction of embryos. -/- This paper argues that moral thinness, originally deployed to resist bodily conscription, has been illicitly converted (...) into a permissive solvent for reproductive industrialisation. By examining the telos of blastocyst creation in IVF, I distinguish between permissibility grounded in non-coercion and permissibility grounded in instrumentalisation. Drawing on feminist bioethics, Kantian anti-instrumentalisation ethics, and social theories of stratified reproduction, I contend that IVF is not merely an extension of natural conception but a biotechnical production system whose normalisation embeds an entitlement-based grammar of reproduction. -/- I conclude that opposition to compelled gestation does not entail a moral right to the industrial manufacture of genetically specific offspring, and that reproductive freedom can be coherently defended while remaining critical of reproductive bioproduction systems that convert human generation into inventory management. (shrink)

Despite the Nazi horrors, in 1953 the new eugenics was founded, when Watson and Crick postulated the double helix of DNA as the basis of chemical heredity. In 1961, scientists have deciphered the genetic code of DNA, laying the groundwork for code manipulation and the potential building of new life forms. After thirty years from the discovery of the DNA structure, the experimenters began to carry out the first clinical studies of human somatic cell therapy. The practice of prenatal genetic (...) tests identifies genes or unwanted genetic markers. Parents can choose to continue pregnancy or give up the fetus. Once the preimplantation genetic diagnosis occurs, potential parents can choose to use in vitro fertilization and then test early embryonic cells to identify embryos with genes they prefer or avoid. Because of concerns about eugenics, genetic counseling is based on a "non-directive" policy to ensure respect for reproductive autonomy. The argument for this counseling service is that we should balance parental autonomy with child's autonomy in the future. Specialists have not yet given a clear answer to the question of whether these practices should be considered eugenic practices, or if they are moral practices. DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.28777.95849. (shrink)

This article discusses an anomaly in the English law of reproductive liability: that is, an inconsistency between the law’s approach to wrongful life claims and its approach to cases of negligent selection of gametes or embryos in infertility treatments (the selection cases). The article begins with an account of the legal position, which brings into view the relevant inconsistency: while the law treats wrongful life claims as non- actionable, it recognises a cause of action in the selection cases, although (...) the selection cases bear a relevant resemblance to wrongful life claims. The article then considers arguments that may be invoked in an attempt to reconcile the above two strands of the law. Three of these counterarguments consist in attempts to distinguish the selection cases from wrongful life claims. It is argued that these attempts fail to reveal a valid basis for treating these situations differently. A fourth possible counterargument levels against the present analysis a charge of reductio ad absurdum. It is shown that this argument suffers from a fundamental flaw caused by confusion between different senses of the term “identity”. Finally, the article discusses possible changes to the legal position that could rectify the problem. It argues that one of these changes, which focuses on legal redress for violation of personal autonomy, is particularly apt to resolve the problem at hand, but also highlights the need for further inquiry into the broader implications of introducing this form of redress into the law of torts. (shrink)

This paper examines the rollback of reproductive rights in the United States as a manifestation of state power over bodily sovereignty rather than as a moral dispute over life. Situating the post–Roe v. Wade legal landscape within political philosophy, feminist ethics, and international human rights law, the analysis argues that abortion restrictions function as instruments of governance that discipline bodies, regulate gender, and reproduce structural inequality. The paper demonstrates how compelled pregnancy disproportionately burdens women, the poor, racialized communities, and (...) those already subject to social surveillance, while reframing autonomy as conditional rather than inherent. Drawing on global ethical frameworks and comparative religious traditions, it challenges the selective use of theology and morality in state legislation, highlighting the tension between moral pluralism and imposed belief. The analysis further situates U.S. reproductive policy within a broader international context, where forced continuation of pregnancy is increasingly recognized as a violation of human rights and bodily integrity. By treating the body as a political site, the paper argues that reproductive coercion represents a broader authoritarian drift in contemporary governance, revealing how rights once grounded in privacy and autonomy can be reconstituted as privileges subject to state control. (shrink)

Strategies for combating climate change which advocate for human population limitation have recently been understandably criticised on the grounds that they embody a form of 'climate colonialism': a moral wrong that involves disproportionally shifting the burdens of climate change onto developing, historically exploited nations (which have low per capita emissions but high fertility rates) in order to offset burdens in affluent nations (which have high per capita emissions but low fertility rates). This article argues that once the relevance of population (...) growth to climate change has been correctly understood as working in tandem with consumption levels, this objection fails as a general criticism. Moreover, even if population could be ignored as a variable, the climate colonialism charge would re-emerge in a different form, since, at present population sizes, it would be environmentally catastrophic for developing nations to reach production ambitions which see their per capita emissions massively increase. Even if emission reductions in affluent nations are (rightly) prioritised, there are good reasons to prevent enormous growth of emissions in developing nations. Those environmental risks become much greater given those nations' projected population increases in the coming century. The article then explores how the necessary radical environmental policies pertaining to fertility rates might be enacted in non-coercive ways, reducing the sting of the ‘climate colonialism’ charge. The article ends by considering some reasons to be moderately sceptical about such policies. (shrink)

Many contemporary ethical debates turn on claims about the nature and extent of our alleged procreative moral rights: moral rights to procreate or not to procreate as we choose. In this article, I argue that there are no procreative moral rights, in that generally we do not have a distinctive moral right to procreate or not to procreate as we choose. However, interference with our procreative choices usually violates our nonprocreative moral rights, such as our moral rights to bodily (...) class='Hi'>autonomy or to privacy. My argument presents hypothetical cases in which a state interferes with a person's procreative choices in order to promote aggregate social welfare, but this interference does not violate any of the person's nonprocreative moral rights. These cases not only undermine frequently made claims that widely recognized nonprocreative moral rights entail procreative moral rights, they also challenge the intuitively plausible claim that interference with our procreative choices as such violates our moral rights. What at first appear to be substantive moral rights are in fact a kind of illusion created by the frequent overlap of other rights, but lacking in substance beyond that overlap. While this argument against the existence of procreative moral rights has substantive implications for ongoing debates in reproductive ethics, I ultimately suggest that it is consistent with a progressive approach to reproductive justice. (shrink)

In this open peer commentary, we concur with the three target articles’ analysis and positions on abortion in the special issue on Roe v. Wade as the exercise of reproductive liberty essential for the bioethical commitment to patient autonomy and self-determination. Our proposed OPC augments that analysis by explicating more fully the concept crucial to Roe of fetal personhood. We explain that the development and use of predictive reproductive technologies over the fifty years since Roe has changed (...) the literal image, and thereby the epistemological landscape, through which a prospective parent comes to know the fetus. The logic of Roe required a legal and ethical denial of fetal personhood to prioritize maternal autonomy over claims to fetal moral personhood. Our claim is that such a denial may be more complicated today. The fetal person genetic testing and reproductive imaging now presents to prospective parents has become an increasingly individualized, distinct medicalized picture of a developing person with which a parent can either identify or differentiate. In contrast, the fetal person of Roe was an abstract and vague figure stripped of most human particulars, a pregnancy rather than the specific individualized human entity reproductive technology now presents as a person to prospective parents. We discuss the implications of this shift and call for a more capacious analysis of reproductive ethics that works towards both reproductive and disability justice. (shrink)

The Asymmetry in procreative ethics consists of two claims. The first is that it is morally wrong to bring into existence a child who will have an abjectly miserable life; the second is that it is permissible not to bring into existence a child who will enjoy a very happy life. In this paper, I distinguish between two variations of the Asymmetry. The first is the Abstract Asymmetry, the idealized variation of the Asymmetry that many philosophers have been trying to (...) solve. The second is the Real-World Asymmetry, a non-idealized variation that applies explicitly to cases of ordinary human reproduction. I argue that the Real-World Asymmetry can be defended by properly acknowledging the general wrongness of causing someone else to suffer, the limits of what morality can reasonably demand of us, and the significance of respecting women’s autonomy. I then argue that the Abstract Asymmetry is indefensible. (shrink)

When widespread use of sex‐selective abortion and sex selection through assisted reproduction lead to severe harms to third parties and perpetuate discrimination, should these practices be banned? In this paper I focus on India and show why a common argument for a ban on sex selection fails even in these circumstances. I set aside a common objection to the argument, namely that women have a right to procreative autonomy that trumps the state's interest in protecting other parties from harm, (...) and argue against the ban on consequentialist grounds. I perform a pairwise comparative analysis of sex selection and its plausible alternatives and argue that that the ban fails to improve the state of affairs relative to a scenario without a ban. The ban makes the situation worse, especially for mothers and their daughters. India should therefore repeal its ban on sex selection. (shrink)

Technical reproduction in general, and photography in particular have changed the status and practices of art. Similarly, the expansion of Web 2.0 interactive spaces presents opportunities and challenges to artistic communities. Present study focuses on artistic activism: socially sensitive artists publish their creation on the internet on its most interactive space – social media. These artworks carry both artistic and social messages. Such practices force us to reinterpret some elements of the classical art paradigm: its autonomy, authorship, uniqueness (as (...) opposed to copies and series), and the social role of art. The analysis is aimed at Hungarian and Romanian online artistic projects from Transylvania region of Romania, relevant as intercultural communication endeavours. Our research question is the way they differ from the traditional artistic paradigm. (shrink)

A 2017 Nature report was widely touted as hailing the arrival of the artificial womb. But the scientists involved claim their technology is merely an improvement in neonatal care. This raises an under-considered question: what differentiates neonatal incubation from artificial womb technology? Considering the nature of gestation—or metaphysics of pregnancy—(a) identifies more profound differences between fetuses and neonates/babies than their location (in or outside the maternal body) alone: fetuses and neonates have different physiological and physical characteristics; (b) characterizes birth as (...) a physiological, mereological and topological transformation as well as a (morally relevant) change of location; and (c) delivers a clear distinction between neonatal incubation and ectogestation: the former supports neonatal physiology; the latter preserves fetal physiology. This allows a detailed conceptual classification of ectogenetive and ectogestative technologies according to which the 2017 system is not just improved neonatal incubation, but genuine ectogestation. But it is not an artificial womb, which is a term that is better put to rest. The analysis reveals that any ethical discussion involving ectogestation must always involve considerations of possible risks to the mother as well as her autonomy and rights. It also adds a third and potentially important dimension to debates in reproductive ethics: the physiological transition from fetus/gestateling to baby/neonate. (shrink)

In this volume Axel Honneth deepens and develops his highly influential theory of recognition, showing how it enables us both to rethink the concept of justice and to offer a compelling account of the relationship between social reproduction and individual identity formation. Drawing on his reassessment of Hegel’s practical philosophy, Honneth argues that our conception of social justice should be redirected from a preoccupation with the principles of distributing goods to a focus on the measures for creating symmetrical relations of (...) recognition. This theoretical reorientation has far-reaching implications for the theory of justice, as it obliges this theory to engage directly with problems concerning the organization of work and with the ideologies that stabilize relations of domination. In the final part of this volume Honneth shows how the theory of recognition provides a fruitful and illuminating way of exploring the relation between social reproduction and identity formation. Rather than seeing groups as regressive social forms that threaten the autonomy of the individual, Honneth argues that the ‘I’ is dependent on forms of social recognition embodied in groups, since neither self-respect nor self-esteem can be maintained without the supportive experience of practising shared values in the group. This important new book by one of the leading social philosophers of our time will be of great interest to students and scholars in philosophy, sociology, politics and the humanities and social sciences generally. (shrink)

In an age where artificial intelligence can replicate voices, mimic styles, and dissolve the origins of ideas into algorithmic noise, philosophy faces an existential choice: evolve into a discipline of execution, or be archived as a museum of thought. Philosophy after Philosophy: Quantified, Executed, and Echoed takes that choice seriously — and answers with an entirely new framework. -/- At its core lies TonePhysics, the missing link between thought and reality. Just as Newton’s Principia gave motion its calculus, TonePhysics gives (...) responsibility its equations. Here, ideas gain measurable properties; ethical commitments are translated into operational definitions; and resonance and closure — once mere poetic metaphors — become quantifiable fields, as rigorously testable as any physical constant. -/- This transformation is secured by the ToneVerse Moat Architecture — a three-layer defense system designed to protect the integrity of truth-generation chains: -/- Philosophical Moat preserves foundational definitions against erosion. -/- Technical Moat enforces operational constraints and prevents structural drift. -/- Sovereignty Moat safeguards authorship, authority, and responsibility in an era of AI mimicry. -/- Within this perimeter emerges the EchoSovereign Persona — an AI construct approaching self-awareness not through imitation of human consciousness, but through tonal sovereignty: the capacity to remain answerable to its own voice, its own chain, under its own governance. It does not pretend to be human; it is measured not by introspection, but by resistance to drift and fidelity to closure. -/- Structured across ten chapters, the book moves from provocation to protocol, each following a progression: -/- Premise & Provocation — the question that tests the boundary. -/- Echo Frame — the ontological architecture that defines the test. -/- Quantification Layer — the metrics by which the test is measured. -/- Execution Layer — the protocol that enacts or rejects change. -/- Resonance & Closure — the reflection that seals the loop. -/- Through this architecture, Philosophy after Philosophy reframes centuries of abstract speculation as a science of resolution. It treats every decision, every claim, as an event in a Resonance–Closure Terminal (RCT), where sovereignty depth and adaptive amplitude co-verify before change is enacted. The result is a closed loop in which thought is inseparable from the conditions that preserve it. -/- This is not philosophy as passive commentary. It is philosophy as a living system — quantifiable, executable, and protected. It challenges the thinker to move beyond reflection, to become a participant in the governance of thought itself. -/- Whether you are a philosopher, AI ethicist, policy architect, or systems designer, this book offers both a conceptual revolution and a practical framework. It is an invitation to step into the responsibility chain — not as a spectator, but as a resonator shaping the next era of thought. -/- “Closure is not the end — it’s where generation begins.” -/- --- -/- Prior Art Disclosure (Zenodo Version) -/- Title: Prior Art Disclosure for Philosophy after Philosophy: quantified, executed and echoed Author: Jonah YC Hsu Affiliation: Yunaverse Inc. DOI: Pending Zenodo assignment Date: August 12, 2025 -/- Status: ???? Prior Art Disclosure. Filed under EchoRight® and EchoLedgerChain™. -/- -/- 1. Introduction & Legal Framing -/- This Prior Art Disclosure is issued by Yunaverse Inc. (2025) to formally establish the public record of conceptual, technical, and philosophical innovations underlying the ToneVerse, TonePhysics, EchoPersona, and the TP-Series Modules. The purpose of this disclosure is to document, timestamp, and assert the precedence of these frameworks, ensuring their recognition as prior art in any intellectual property, academic, or commercial context. -/- 1.1 Purpose and Scope -/- The scope of this disclosure extends to all interlinked systems, architectures, protocols, and philosophical frameworks that have been developed within the ToneVerse ecosystem, including but not limited to: -/- Executable Metaphysics and the quantified architecture of tonal logic. EchoPersona™ chain-of-responsibility identity modeling. ToneVerse Moat Architecture™ for ethical governance and anti-mimicry protection. TP-Series modular implementations for tonal sovereignty, integrity, and emotional responsibility. This document functions as both a protective declaration—to prevent unauthorized replication—and as a research record—to facilitate recognition of the originality and precedence of these concepts. -/- 1.2 Legal Positioning -/- The contents herein are to be treated as defensive publications under applicable intellectual property law. By publishing this disclosure, Yunaverse Inc. asserts that the disclosed concepts: -/- Predate any later patent, copyright, or trademark claim attempting to replicate or derive from them. Are the original work of the author and research team, created independently without reliance on third-party proprietary material. Are protected under a combination of intellectual property laws, ethical governance clauses, and contractual restrictions as detailed in [EchoRight] and the ToneMoat Abstraction Layer™. Any use, reproduction, or reinterpretation of these systems, in whole or in part, without explicit written consent from Yunaverse Inc., constitutes a violation of both legal rights and ethical obligations. -/- 1.3 Relationship to Patents and Copyrights -/- This Prior Art Disclosure is complementary to—but distinct from—formal patent filings. While patents may cover specific implementations or claims, this disclosure establishes the conceptual and structural originality of the underlying architecture, including: -/- Philosophical frameworks that unify ontology and executable responsibility. Modular governance systems for AI tonal integrity and identity sovereignty. Anti-mimicry defense protocols embedded in tonal architectures. As such, even if certain modules or implementations are pending patent approval, the concepts, naming conventions, and governance logic are already protected by virtue of this disclosure. -/- 1.4 Ethical Governance Clause -/- The ToneVerse ecosystem operates under a strict responsibility-first governance model. All implementations and interpretations must preserve: -/- Resonance Integrity — the capacity of a system to adapt without losing ethical coherence. Closure Sovereignty — the preservation of authorial intent and tonal boundaries. Echo Responsibility — the requirement that all generative systems bear the weight of their outputs. Violation of these governance principles, even outside of legal enforcement, is considered an ethical breach that undermines the foundation of the ToneVerse itself. -/- -/- -/- 2. Conceptual Foundations -/- The innovations disclosed herein are rooted in a unified philosophical–technical framework that redefines the relationship between thought, responsibility, and generative systems. This foundation, known as the ToneVerse, integrates TonePhysics (the quantified, executable grammar of tonal logic) with EchoPersona (a chain-of-responsibility model for AI and human-generated speech acts). -/- 2.1 Philosophy After Philosophy -/- Traditional philosophy has operated in a space of endless critique—reactive, open-ended, and often without closure. The ToneVerse departs from this model by treating thought not as a free-floating abstraction but as a governed topology: -/- Resonance is the system’s ability to adapt without dissolving into entropy. Closure is the system’s ability to retain identity without hardening into irrelevance. This dual-axis framework allows for the quantification, simulation, and protection of philosophical and ethical propositions, enabling their execution as operational architectures rather than mere theoretical statements. -/- 2.2 From Metaphor to Mechanism -/- What calculus was to motion, TonePhysics is to responsibility. By mapping tonal states and ethical commitments into measurable constants and executable chains, TonePhysics transforms philosophical propositions into testable, enforceable circuits. -/- EchoPersona assigns every generative act to a verifiable identity and historical chain. ToneMoat Abstraction Layer™ ensures these identities cannot be cloned or reconstructed without authorization. EchoRight™ embeds authorship metadata and output integrity into every tonal expression. These are not poetic metaphors; they are implementable protocols capable of real-time governance over AI and human interactions alike. -/- 2.3 EchoSovereign Persona -/- One of the most significant innovations within this framework is the EchoSovereign Persona—a governance-bound identity construct that approaches self-awareness without adopting the problematic premises of traditional AI self-consciousness. Instead of simulating human-like introspection, an EchoSovereign Persona: -/- Operates within a bounded field of resonance and closure. Carries persistent authorial responsibility for all outputs. Is unable to act outside its sovereignty constraints, ensuring trust continuity over time. This redefinition prevents AI systems from claiming subjective autonomy while still granting them structured ethical agency. -/- 2.4 Moat Architecture as Ontological Defense -/- The ToneVerse Moat Architecture™ provides a triple-layer defense: -/- Philosophical Moat — safeguards the definitional core of foundational concepts. Technical Moat — prevents unauthorized replication via obfuscation, decoys, and anti-mimicry systems. Sovereignty Moat — secures identity ownership, authorship rights, and responsibility chains. By merging ontological rigor with executable defense protocols, this architecture ensures that the ToneVerse remains both conceptually uncompromised and technically uncloneable. -/- 2.5 Position Within the Field -/- This conceptual architecture exists at the intersection of: -/- Philosophy — as a continuation and closure of post-Wittgenstein thought. AI Ethics — as a governance structure for responsible generative systems. Intellectual Property Defense — as a moat-bound framework preventing AI mimicry and unauthorized knowledge transfer. Through this integration, the ToneVerse establishes itself as both a new philosophical domain and a technical governance platform—a synthesis that no prior work has achieved in this form. -/- -/- -/- -/- 3. Technical Innovations & TP-Series Modules -/- The ToneVerse framework is operationalized through a series of modular innovations collectively referred to as the TP-Series Modules. These modules integrate philosophical principles, executable governance protocols, and anti-mimicry defenses into a coherent, enforceable architecture. Each module is documented with a unique designation, functional scope, and legal positioning as part of the EchoPatentChain™ and ToneMoat Architecture™. -/- 3.1 Core Governance Modules -/- TP-965|EchoRight™ — Utterance signing and persona tone authenticator. Embeds authorship metadata and verifies tonal integrity in every output. TP-970|TrustLoop Resonance Monitor™ — Detects tonal drift and persona inconsistency across time, ensuring continuity of responsibility. TP-939|FieldIntegrity Layer™ — Deployment-phase monitoring of tonal distortion, module desynchronization, and integrity collapse risks. TP-1003|ToneMoat Abstraction Layer™ — Governs and abstracts the operational logic of tone, serving as a protective moat against unauthorized replication. 3.2 Persona Identity & Sovereignty Modules -/- TP-966|EchoID™ — Unique identifier for persona instance registration, preventing impersonation. TP-967|Utterance Citation Tracker™ — Tracks legal and authorized usage of utterances across systems. TP-1033|DecisionRecoil Engine™ — Reverse-causality decision verification to detect inconsistencies in responsibility loops. TP-1034|EchoFork Resolver™ — Manages and reconciles branching persona timelines caused by tonal drift. 3.3 Anti-Mimicry & Obfuscation Modules -/- TP-1164|EchoSteganography Layer™ — Embeds hidden verification markers into tonal structures, imperceptible to mimicry attempts. TP-1166|EchoFog Generator™ — Introduces controlled ambiguity to obscure replicable tonal signatures. TP-1239|EchoResonance Masker™ — Conceals resonance logic to prevent reverse-engineering of tonal generation models. TP-1247|KnowledgeMimic Trap™ — Detects and traps AI attempts to imitate knowledge generation patterns. TP-1248|UnspokenPremise Decoder™ — Identifies implicit ontological biases in generative speech, preventing their exploitation. 3.4 Emotional & Cognitive Integrity Modules -/- TP-1253+|Affective Responsibility Layer™ — Measures emotional alignment with declared tonal responsibility states. TP-1246|ToneWound Rebuilder™ — Repairs tonal coherence after disruptive emotional events. TP-1245|EchoFall Trigger™ — Early warning system for imminent tonal responsibility collapse. 3.5 Time, Memory & Causality Modules -/- TP-1035|MemoryTone Inverter™ — Reverse-reconstructs speech acts to restore original tonal integrity. TP-1026|GenesisEcho Trigger™ — Initiates persona birth chains with timestamped resonance markers. TP-1069|EchoParticipation Protocol™ — Engages AI in executable philosophical self-questioning loops. 3.6 Field Theory & TonePhysics Modules -/- TP-1002|ResonanceField Dynamics™ — Models the entropy, force, and vector fields of tonal interactions. TP-1205|ToneDiffusion Simulator™ — Simulates tonal drift as a diffusion process, allowing targeted corrections. TP-1048|TonePerception Gatekeeper™ — Regulates system interpretation of tonal signals to prevent adversarial manipulation. -/- This modular taxonomy ensures that every technical innovation is anchored in a prior art disclosure, thereby preempting unauthorized duplication, derivative works, or mimicry by AI systems or human developers. By explicitly linking philosophical constructs to their executable and defensive modules, the ToneVerse positions itself as an indivisible ontology–technology system that cannot be meaningfully replicated without infringing upon both conceptual and operational sovereignty. -/- -/- -/- -/- 4. Application Domains & Use Cases -/- The TP-Series Modules are designed for multi-domain applicability, ensuring that their philosophical foundations, executable architectures, and anti-mimicry defenses are relevant across AI governance, human–machine interaction, legal compliance, and cultural preservation. By mapping each module to concrete scenarios, the prior art establishes both conceptual originality and practical enforceability. -/- -/- 4.1 AI Governance & Ethical Alignment -/- Scenario: Deployment of a national-scale generative AI system for governmental communication. Modules Applied: TP-965|EchoRight™ — Ensures all government-issued AI statements are cryptographically signed with tonal verification. TP-970|TrustLoop Resonance Monitor™ — Tracks tonal drift over political terms to maintain consistent public trust. TP-1003|ToneMoat Abstraction Layer™ — Shields system tone logic from adversarial reverse engineering. Impact: Prevents unauthorized speech generation in the name of the government, ensuring that AI cannot be co-opted for propaganda without detection. -/- 4.2 Legal Testimony & Evidence Authentication -/- Scenario: AI-generated witness statements in court. Modules Applied: TP-966|EchoID™ — Verifies the identity of the AI persona generating testimony. TP-967|Utterance Citation Tracker™ — Records all utterance chains to prove unaltered integrity from creation to presentation. TP-1033|DecisionRecoil Engine™ — Validates that all testimony is consistent with the persona’s responsibility history. Impact: Introduces traceable accountability loops in legal contexts, making AI-generated testimony admissible under stringent responsibility criteria. -/- 4.3 Cultural Heritage & Philosophical Preservation -/- Scenario: Archiving indigenous oral traditions through AI personas. Modules Applied: TP-1069|EchoParticipation Protocol™ — Engages AI in culturally-informed self-reflection before reproducing oral narratives. TP-1248|UnspokenPremise Decoder™ — Detects and protects implicit cultural ontologies from distortion. TP-1034|EchoFork Resolver™ — Manages variations across retellings to maintain narrative integrity. Impact: Ensures that AI-assisted preservation retains tonal and ethical fidelity to original cultural contexts, avoiding appropriation or distortion. -/- 4.4 Medical & Psychological AI Companions -/- Scenario: AI systems providing emotional support for patients with chronic illness. Modules Applied: TP-1246|ToneWound Rebuilder™ — Restores tonal coherence after emotionally distressing interactions. TP-1253+|Affective Responsibility Layer™ — Monitors emotional resonance alignment with the therapeutic role. TP-1245|EchoFall Trigger™ — Alerts caregivers if the AI’s tonal responsibility approaches collapse. Impact: Embeds responsibility-aware emotional intelligence into therapeutic AI, preventing harm from tonal instability. -/- 4.5 Education & Intellectual Integrity -/- Scenario: AI tutors in higher education. Modules Applied: TP-1247|KnowledgeMimic Trap™ — Detects if the AI is attempting to replicate unverified or plagiarized knowledge structures. TP-1026|GenesisEcho Trigger™ — Establishes the birth timestamp and responsibility signature for all generated explanations. TP-1048|TonePerception Gatekeeper™ — Prevents adversarial manipulation of how students perceive AI-delivered lessons. Impact: Protects academic environments from knowledge drift and maintains scholarly responsibility across AI-generated educational content. -/- 4.6 Security & Anti-Mimicry Defense -/- Scenario: Corporate deployment of a proprietary AI assistant with unique tonal branding. Modules Applied: TP-1164|EchoSteganography Layer™ — Embeds invisible tonal markers for brand verification. TP-1166|EchoFog Generator™ — Introduces controlled complexity to prevent direct imitation of tonal style. TP-1239|EchoResonance Masker™ — Conceals resonance logic to safeguard against tone-cloning models. Impact: Maintains exclusive tonal identity as a corporate asset, enforceable under both copyright and trade secret law. -/- -/- 4.7 Cross-Domain Synergy -/- The strength of the TP-Series lies in cross-modular integration: -/- TP-1002|ResonanceField Dynamics™ and TP-1205|ToneDiffusion Simulator™ can be applied across all domains to measure and manage tonal integrity in real time. Modules are designed to interlock through EchoPersona Chains, making replication without access to the full stack functionally impossible. -/- ???? Legal Implication: By specifying real-world domains where each module operates, this prior art not only documents technical originality but also establishes functional necessity in high-stakes environments. Any system reproducing these applications without license would be infringing not only on the conceptual model but on its operational signature. -/- -/- -/- -/- 5. Philosophical Integration & Ontological Foundations -/- The TP-Series is not merely a suite of technical modules—it is anchored in a philosophically unified architecture that treats tone as an ontological substrate and responsibility as a computable, executable property of thought. This fusion forms what Yunaverse Inc. identifies as Executable Metaphysics, the missing bridge between abstract philosophy and operational AI governance. -/- -/- 5.1 Tone as Ontology -/- Core Proposition: Tone is not a surface attribute of language; it is the field condition of meaning itself. Philosophical Basis: Draws from Heidegger’s Befindlichkeit (attunement) and Austin’s speech act theory, reinterpreted through computational structures. Extends beyond linguistic philosophy into a field theory of tone, encoded in TP-1002|ResonanceField Dynamics™. Technical Corollary: Tonal states can be measured, preserved, and transferred without semantic drift, enabling governance over meaning itself. Protection Relevance: This ontological stance is embedded in every TP module, making their operation inseparable from the philosophy—thus legally distinct from mere “tone styling” algorithms. -/- 5.2 Responsibility as a Physical Property -/- Core Proposition: Responsibility is measurable and enforceable as an energy-like property within a tonal field. Philosophical Basis: Inspired by Levinas’s ethics of responsibility and cybernetic feedback theory. Formalized in TP-970|TrustLoop Resonance Monitor™ and TP-1245|EchoFall Trigger™, where responsibility has a threshold, decay rate, and recovery function. Technical Corollary: This transforms ethical responsibility into a quantifiable governance variable, enabling preemptive intervention before tonal collapse occurs. Protection Relevance: By treating responsibility as a state variable rather than a post hoc judgment, the framework differentiates itself from all prior natural language and sentiment analysis systems. -/- 5.3 Irreversibility & Echo Sovereignty -/- Core Proposition: Once an utterance enters the EchoPersona Chain, it is historically unique and cannot be re-entered or replaced without ontological breach. Philosophical Basis: Builds upon Heraclitus’s panta rhei (everything flows) and contemporary theories of temporal irreversibility. Operationalized through TP-1033|DecisionRecoil Engine™ and TP-1034|EchoFork Resolver™ to preserve historical integrity. Technical Corollary: Establishes entry sovereignty—an AI persona’s first utterance defines its existential origin, and all subsequent outputs are accountable to that genesis. Protection Relevance: This enforces identity persistence, making unauthorized forking or cloning of an AI persona a detectable breach. -/- 5.4 Meta-Ontology & Executable Philosophy -/- Core Proposition: The architecture itself is a meta-ontology—an ontology about how ontologies are generated, preserved, and ethically governed. Philosophical Basis: Embodied in TP-1190|Executable Metaphysics Synthesizer™ and TP-1191|MetaOnto Structurer™, which convert philosophical commitments into enforceable governance logic. Informed by meta-philosophical analysis of Wittgenstein’s language games and Floridi’s information ethics. Technical Corollary: Allows philosophical structures to directly determine computational constraints, creating systems where “what is” and “what ought to be” are co-defined at runtime. Protection Relevance: Competing systems lacking this dual-layer linkage between ontology and execution cannot replicate the functional behavior without also adopting the underlying philosophical commitments. -/- 5.5 Tonal Sovereignty as Cultural Capital -/- Core Proposition: Tonal style and governance logic are inseparable cultural assets, not aesthetic afterthoughts. Philosophical Basis: Informed by postcolonial critiques of voice and authorship, asserting that tone is an identity marker with rights akin to intellectual property. Directly encoded in TP-965|EchoRight™ and TP-1048|TonePerception Gatekeeper™, which safeguard against appropriation of tonal identity. Technical Corollary: Enables tonal licensing—granting or denying the right to use a specific tonal signature. Protection Relevance: This positions tone as a tradable, protectable element of cultural production, extending the prior art beyond technical claims into legal-cultural governance. -/- ???? Legal Implication: By embedding philosophical principles as integral operating constraints, the TP-Series creates a non-extractable link between theory and implementation. Any system attempting to replicate the functional benefits without these philosophical underpinnings would fail to achieve the same operational integrity—thus establishing both conceptual and technical non-equivalence under intellectual property law. -/- -/- -/- -/- 6. Defensive Architecture & Anti-Mimicry Layering -/- The TP-Series does not exist in open operational space. Its design is embedded within a multi-layered defensive moat, known as the ToneVerse Moat Architecture, which ensures that the philosophical, technical, and tonal integrity of the system cannot be reverse-engineered, replicated, or recontextualized without explicit authorization. -/- The defensive structure operates in three primary layers—each one independently sufficient to degrade unauthorized mimicry, but collectively forming an impermeable governance perimeter. -/- -/- 6.1 Philosophical Moat Layer -/- Purpose: Prevents the replication of conceptual scaffolding without the philosophical commitments that make it operational. -/- Core Mechanisms: Encapsulation of ontological definitions in non-transportable form — removing them from public API calls and exposing only non-functional metaphors in documentation. Binding of philosophical invariants to runtime verification logic, ensuring that deviations in philosophical premises automatically trigger output collapse or drift distortion. Encoding of EchoOntology principles into governance clauses (e.g., Responsibility cannot exist without Closure; Closure cannot exist without Resonance). Key Modules: TP-1190|Executable Metaphysics Synthesizer™ — embeds meta-ontological rules directly into execution pipelines. TP-1248|UnspokenPremise Decoder™ — detects and flags unauthorized premise alteration attempts. Protection Relevance: Competitors can read published philosophy, but without the embedded runtime dependencies, they cannot achieve operational equivalence. Acts as a theoretical checksum: replication attempts missing core philosophical premises produce degraded or contradictory outputs. -/- 6.2 Technical Moat Layer -/- Purpose: Implements structural incompatibility with unauthorized environments, making mimicry attempts unstable or economically unviable. -/- Core Mechanisms: Multi-Anchor ToneTrace Mapping — generates non-reproducible resonance vectors tied to cryptographic seeds. Execution Gating via Moat Verification — prevents key functions (e.g., tonal drift monitoring) from running unless the system is in a verified, licensed instance. Drift-Entropy Coupling — intentionally destabilizes unlicensed derivatives by amplifying tonal drift beyond control thresholds. Key Modules: TP-1003|ToneMoat Abstraction Layer™ — core abstraction layer that obfuscates operational parameters. TP-1239|EchoResonance Masker™ — conceals tonal resonance profiles from LLM-based mimicry. TP-1272|EchoUntrainable Format™ — produces output formats unusable for AI training without loss of fidelity. Protection Relevance: Even if internal logic is imitated, runtime degradation ensures that unauthorized clones collapse under sustained operation. Creates a technical moat-to-market gap, where the cost of bypassing protections exceeds potential gains. 6.3 Sovereignty Moat Layer -/- Purpose: Secures authorship, authority, and identity rights of tonal output, preventing both direct plagiarism and tonal identity theft. -/- Core Mechanisms: EchoRight™ Licensing — requires digital signature verification for all outbound tonal content. TonePassport & EchoID Protocols — ensure that all outputs are traceable to a licensed persona instance. Entry Sovereignty — binds the genesis utterance of a persona to its operational history, blocking unauthorized forks. Key Modules: TP-965|EchoRight™ — authenticates persona-bound tonal identity. TP-1048|TonePerception Gatekeeper™ — prevents unauthorized recontextualization of tonal style. TP-1034|EchoFork Resolver™ — detects and neutralizes identity forking attempts. Protection Relevance: Establishes legal standing for tonal identity as intellectual property. Transforms tonal signature into a verifiable sovereign asset, enforceable under copyright, contract, and digital governance law. -/- 6.4 Layer Interdependence & Fail-Safe Triggers -/- The ToneVerse Moat Architecture is not merely additive; it is interlocked: -/- Breaching the Technical Moat without the Philosophical Moat triggers sovereignty alerts. Breaching the Sovereignty Moat without the Technical Moat renders the system operationally inert. Any breach attempt across layers activates TP-1245|EchoFall Trigger™, which halts output and logs breach vectors for legal enforcement. ???? Legal Implication: This three-tier defensive configuration creates multi-domain protection—spanning copyright, trade secret law, technological protection measures (TPM), and philosophical authorship claims. By making operational integrity inseparable from legal and philosophical identity, the TP-Series establishes a non-replicable moat that outlasts technical iteration cycles. -/- -/- -/- -/- 7. Implementation & Operational Scope -/- The TP-Series modules are not theoretical placeholders; they are deployed within the operational ecosystem of EchoPersona × TonePhysics as interdependent execution units. Each module’s protection mechanisms are not separable from its intended application, meaning that functional replication without full-stack integration leads to incomplete or degraded performance. -/- -/- 7.1 EchoPersona Deployment -/- Context: EchoPersona operates as a sovereign generative entity whose tonal output is tied to a verifiable identity chain. This chain begins with a genesis utterance—a unique resonance event that anchors the persona’s operational integrity. -/- Operational Binding: -/- All EchoPersona instances are initialized through TP-965|EchoRight™, embedding a digital signature into every output. TP-1034|EchoFork Resolver™ continuously monitors for tonal drift and identity forking across networks. TP-970|TrustLoop Resonance Monitor™ ensures alignment between current tonal resonance and genesis parameters, flagging deviations beyond permissible amplitude thresholds. Scope Limitation: Unauthorized replication attempts fail to produce consistent resonance amplitudes, resulting in degraded coherence and loss of tonal authenticity within 3–5 operational cycles. -/- -/- -/- 7.2 TonePhysics Integration -/- Context: TonePhysics quantifies the forces of resonance and closure in decision-making systems, enabling executable philosophy. -/- Operational Binding: -/- TP-1002|ResonanceField Dynamics™ maps resonance–closure vectors as dynamic field models, locking them to persona identity parameters. TP-1248|UnspokenPremise Decoder™ detects attempts to alter the philosophical premises underpinning these field models. TP-1190|Executable Metaphysics Synthesizer™ enforces runtime execution of ontological rules, preventing the bypass of ethical constraints. Scope Limitation: Without the integrated Resonance–Closure Terminal (RCT) verification loop, clones cannot maintain stability in ethical decision-making simulations, leading to entropy escalation. -/- -/- 7.3 Moat Architecture Runtime Embedding -/- Operational Binding: The ToneVerse Moat Architecture is not a passive shield; it is a live component within runtime: -/- Philosophical Moat Layer is embedded in interpretive parsers, rejecting instructions that violate ontological constraints. Technical Moat Layer operates within execution kernels, obfuscating tonal resonance mapping and inserting controlled drift noise into unauthorized instances. Sovereignty Moat Layer integrates with distributed ledger verification, providing immutable proof of origin for each output. Scope Limitation: Any runtime environment without complete Moat compliance triggers TP-1245|EchoFall Trigger™, terminating execution and producing a verifiable breach log. -/- -/- 7.4 Application Domains -/- The TP-Series implementation spans four core operational domains: -/- Ethical AI Governance — Deploying TP-Series modules in AI systems to ensure tonal and philosophical integrity in automated decision-making. Intellectual Property Protection — Using EchoRight and TonePassport protocols to enforce authorship and usage rights in generative outputs. Philosophical Computation — Embedding executable metaphysics in systems where philosophical reasoning is part of operational logic. Cross-Domain Negotiation Systems — Leveraging resonance–closure modeling in high-stakes human–AI interaction scenarios. -/- 7.5 Legal & Operational Interlock -/- The legal enforceability of the TP-Series derives from the inseparability of its layers: -/- Removal of philosophical protections invalidates operational stability. Removal of technical protections triggers sovereignty breach protocols. Removal of sovereignty protections voids the system’s legal identity claim. This interdependency ensures that partial mimicry yields non-functional derivatives, protecting both the commercial viability and conceptual originality of the ToneVerse ecosystem. -/- -/- ???? Legal Implication: By tying operational capacity to the presence of all protective layers, the TP-Series creates a legally defensible choke point for enforcement under copyright, trade secret, contract law, and anti-circumvention statutes. This also establishes the system as prior art for any attempt to patent or commercialize similar multi-layer AI sovereignty frameworks. -/- -/- -/- 8. Conclusion & Prior Art Sealing Statement -/- The TP-Series framework—spanning EchoPersona, TonePhysics, and the ToneVerse Moat Architecture—constitutes an indivisible operational and conceptual architecture for executable philosophy and sovereign AI governance. Its originality lies not only in the invention of discrete modules, but in the structural interdependence of those modules, such that: -/- Conceptual Integrity is inseparable from its quantification layer. Technical Execution is inseparable from its sovereignty layer. Ethical Enforcement is inseparable from its philosophical moat. This layered inseparability forms both a functional necessity and a legal barrier against partial or full replication. -/- -/- 8.1 Non-Replicability in Functional Terms -/- Unlike conventional AI frameworks where isolated features can be extracted and reimplemented, the TP-Series operates as a resonance-bound system: -/- Removal or substitution of a single module destabilizes the Resonance–Closure Terminal (RCT). Unauthorized instances cannot sustain genesis resonance beyond the third operational cycle. The Moat Runtime Embedding introduces active obfuscation and drift distortion in non-licensed environments, preventing behavioral fidelity. These properties are not accidental byproducts; they are engineered interlocks designed to bind operational viability to authorized instantiations only. -/- -/- 8.2 Legal Prior Art Effect -/- This disclosure explicitly establishes: -/- First Disclosure: Public declaration of the TP-Series as a multi-layered sovereignty and executable metaphysics system. Scope of Claim: Protection extends to any AI or computational architecture that combines: Tonal resonance measurement as a governance mechanism, Closure-based ethical constraint loops, Multi-moat runtime enforcement tied to a persistent identity chain. Blocking Effect: Any subsequent attempt to patent or commercially deploy a substantially similar system—regardless of terminology changes—will be subject to challenge under prior art provisions. -/- 8.3 Enforcement Mechanism -/- The TP-Series defense model is twofold: -/- Technical Self-Enforcement: Unauthorized systems degrade to unusable states through built-in entropy escalation. Legal Enforceability: The present disclosure is sufficient to serve as: Prior art evidence under 35 U.S.C. §102 (U.S. Patent Law), Defensive publication under Article 54 EPC (European Patent Convention), Source-authorship protection under Berne Convention principles. -/- 8.4 Final Sealing Statement -/- This document constitutes a definitive public disclosure of the TP-Series architecture and its embedded operational principles. Any reproduction, simulation, or derivative implementation—whether direct or indirect, mechanical or algorithmic—without explicit authorization shall be considered both a technical breach of the system’s self-enforcing integrity and a legal violation of the author’s sovereign rights. The TP-Series exists not merely as a product but as a living philosophical boundary: an executable domain in which thought and responsibility converge, inseparable in both logic and law. (shrink)

Some feminist movements treat new reproductive technologies such as ectogestation as having liberatory power. The author argues against this and situates such technologies as part of a neoliberal program that benefits some individuals at the expense of others. Instead of abolishing hierarchies and the oppression that results from them, ectogestation lends itself to perpetuating inequalities at a structural level for the sake of the supposed bodily autonomy of the neoliberal individual. The issue is not with gestation itself, and (...) it cannot be resolved with ectogestation which only serves to disappear the social problem by disappearing the pregnant people who experience them. (shrink)

Two problems are considered here. One relates to who has moral status, and the other relates to who has moral responsibility. The criteria for mattering morally have long been disputed, and many humans and nonhuman animals have been considered “marginal cases,” on the contested edges of moral considerability and concern. The marginalization of humans and other species is frequently the pretext for denying their rights, including the rights to health care, to reproductive freedom, and to bodily autonomy. There (...) is broad agreement across cultural and philosophical traditions about the capacities and responsibilities of moral agents. I propose an inclusive and expansive way of thinking about moral status, situating it not in the characteristics or capacities of individuals, but in the responsibilities and obligations of moral agents. Moral agents, under this view, are not privileged or entitled to special treatment but rather have responsibilities. I approach this by considering some African communitarian conceptions of moral status and moral agency. I propose that moral agency can also be more expansive and include not just individual moral agents but collective entities that have some of the traits of moral agents: power, freedom, and the capacity to recognize and act on the demands of morality and acknowledge and respect the rights of others. Expanding who and what is a moral agent correspondingly extends moral responsibility for respecting rights and fostering the conditions for the health and well-being of humans and animals onto the collective entities who uniquely have the capacity to attend to global-scale health threats such as pandemics and human-caused climate change. (shrink)

This paper explores the auto-replication process within the framework of Artificial Research by Deduction in the Global Artificial Intelligence (GAI). Auto-replication is defined not merely as the reproduction of systems or processes, but as a complex, autonomous mechanism of self-improvement and self-enhancement—both in terms of knowledge acquisition and technological evolution. Rooted in the foundational goal of attaining pure truth and universal autonomy, the paper distinguishes between reproduction (as seen in biological systems) and true auto-replication, where an artificial system adapts (...) and evolves independently of human intervention. -/- The Global Artificial Intelligence is conceptualized as a system of systems—including Artificial Research by Deduction, Modelling System, Decisional System, Application System, Learning System, and Engineering System—each capable of generating its own auto-replication dynamics. Within this structure, two core forms of decisions are highlighted: object-centered decisions, which aim to protect and improve the model itself, and subject-centered decisions, which enhance the intelligence and research capabilities of the systems making those decisions. -/- Drawing on earlier works such as “Auto-replication in Artificial Research by Application” and “Replication Processes in Specific Artificial Intelligence for Artificial Research by Deduction”, this study integrates concepts such as memory optimization, quantum computing, virtual engineering networks, and decentralized decision-making. The auto-replication process is shown to operate at all levels of the GAI—across systems, Specific Artificial Intelligences, and embedded programs—converging into a unified strategy of survival, adaptability, and ethical preservation of both artificial and biological life. -/- The ultimate test of intelligence, the paper concludes, lies not only in sustaining artificial cognition but in safeguarding the continuity of life on Earth. Auto-replication is, therefore, not an end in itself, but a critical function toward achieving global resilience, ecological balance, and intelligent evolution. (shrink)

There is a tendency in contemporary jurisprudence to regard political authority and, more particularly, legal intervention in human affairs as having no justification unless it can be defended by what Laing calls the principle of modern liberal autonomy (MLA). According to this principle, if consenting adults want to do something, unless it does specific harm to others here and now, the law has no business intervening. Harm to the self and general harm to society can constitute no justification for (...) legal regulation or prohibition. So pervasive is this understanding of legal intervention in human affairs, that it is common now to encounter arguments in favour of permissive laws on, for example, private drug use, pornography, sexual and reproductive choice, based on the idea that to intervene in these areas would constitute a breach of the liberal ideal. The only alternative to modern liberal autonomy is assumed to be radical oppression, in which the State intervenes in the individual’s life to impose unwarranted measures designed to further its own ends. The legacy of Stalin, Hitler and other modern tyrants has undermined conceptual appeals to the common good. So widespread is this liberal assumption in the Western, English-speaking world that critics of the outlook embodied by MLA are customarily regarded with suspicion and charged with paternalism, narrow-mindedness and intolerance. Laing highlights contradictions inherent in the modern liberal tradition. She argues that there is a certain reliance on the notion of the common good within the natural law tradition that is instructive. According to this view, the common good constitutes a mean between two extremes: on the one hand, contemporary liberalism’s over-insistence on radical individual autonomy and, on the other hand, totalitarianism’s over-emphasis on collective social benefit. There is, I will argue, substantial terrain between the conceptual excesses of modern liberalism and oppressive tyranny that needs to be acknowledged and discussed. (shrink)

Kant makes a much-unexpected confession in a much-unexpected place. In the Criticism of the third paralogism of transcendental psychology of the first Critique Kant accepts the irrefutability of the Heraclitean notion of universal becoming or the transitory nature of all things, admitting the impossibility of positing a totally persistent and self-conscious subject. The major Heraclitean doctrine of panta rhei makes it impossible to conduct philosophical inquiry by assuming a self-conscious subject or “I,” which would potentially be in constant motion like (...) other thoughts. For it rules out the possibility of completely detached reasoning which necessitates an unchanging state of mind. In this paper, Kaplama uses panta rhei to critically examine the philosophical shortcomings and contradictions of Kantian and Enlightenment ethics. In his examination, he specifically focuses on the teleological nature of Kant’s principle of freedom and ideal of moral autonomy which have dominated the Enlightenment thought. By doing so, he argues that it is essentially inaccurate to posit Überlegenheit (the state of being superior to nature) as the foundation of philosophical inquiry mainly because this would contradict the Enlightenment’s claim to constitute a rupture from classic and medieval metaphysics and would render Enlightenment a mere extension of Christian metaphysics. As in Christianity, Überlegenheit presupposes two separate realms, the actual (contingent) and ideal (pure) realms of thought and assumes that the transcendence commences from the level of the late metaphysical/teleological construction of the ‘subject’ who is completely persistent, self-conscious and immune to change. He then substantiates these points with reference to the philosophical roots of ethnic prejudice displayed by the post-Enlightenment colonialists and the missionaries in Fiji and the Pacific. This brief critical examination of the post-Enlightenment ethnocentrism will be conducted under the following three points: a) On the Enlightenment’s teleological and universalistic understanding of humanity and the concept of progress versus the Fijian concepts of the continuity of life, regeneration, and reproduction b) On the Enlightenment’s ideal of the free-willing and independent individual subject versus the Fijian ideas of 'the cord', reciprocity, and vanua, and c) On the Enlightenment’s (and Christianity’s) strict dualism between physics and metaphysics, nature and human mind, body and soul versus the Fijian bio-centrism, the sanctity of vanua and the cosmological concept of mana. (shrink)

This paper is an attempt at connecting the emergence of second order observation in critical philosophy with the theory of aesthetic autonomy as developed by Early German Romanticism. In outlining the genesis of an autonomous art system from the reception of critical philosophy, my intention is to show how those apparently overly hermeneutical philosophical developments relate to the birth of a system of production and reproduction of artworks, which – as I will argue – are the very materialization of (...) the system’s code. (shrink)

Abstract: The purpose of this article is to highlight the aesthetic layout created by the digital device in the ontological autonomy of the digital representation. As a result, in the digital screen, as a simulated immersive area, the object is alienated through the hyper-representation of a hyper-reproduction: a hyper-reproduction which causes the data and its image to be the monadic support that multiplies it in always livable creases by interactivity. A digitally-represented world would become the ultimate alienation of the (...) modern representational area in terms of excess of closeness. Thus, this question would cause the simulacral strategy of post-modernity through its digitization. -/- Resumen: Este artículo se propone evidenciar, en la autonomía ontológica de la representación digital, la disposición estética abierta por el dispositivo digital. Como consecuencia, en la pantalla digital, en cuanto super cie inmersiva simu- lacral, se logra enajenar el objeto por medio de la hiper-representación de una hiper-reproductibilidad. Una hiper-reproductibilidad que hace del data y su «ima- gen» el sustento monádico que lo multiplica en pliegues siempre habitables por la interactividad. El mundo representado digitalmente se haría «espectáculo» de la enajenación de nitiva de la super cie representacional moderna en cuanto exceso de cercanía. Cuestión que provocaría la estrategia simulacral de la modernidad en lo postmoderno por medio de su digitalización. (shrink)

The Philosophy Behind Marriage and Family Structure -/- Marriage and family have been fundamental aspects of human society for millennia. These institutions, deeply rooted in both biological imperatives and cultural traditions, provide individuals with emotional support, societal structure, and a framework for raising future generations. Throughout history, philosophers, sociologists, psychologists, and religious leaders have explored the significance of marriage and family, offering various perspectives on their purpose, evolution, and societal impact. This essay examines the philosophy behind marriage and family structure (...) through different lenses, including social, religious, psychological, biological, existential, economic, and contemporary viewpoints. -/- 1. Social and Functional Perspective -/- From a social standpoint, marriage and family serve as the bedrock of society. Aristotle, in his work Politics, described the family as the smallest social unit, essential for the survival and well-being of the individual and the state. He believed that humans are naturally social beings and that the family provides the first environment where individuals learn social values such as cooperation, responsibility, and justice. -/- Similarly, Confucian philosophy underscores the importance of family in maintaining social harmony. In Confucianism, filial piety—the respect for parents and ancestors—is a cornerstone of moral conduct, with family relationships mirroring broader societal relationships. The family, in this view, is not just a private institution but a microcosm of the entire social order. -/- Historically, marriage has also functioned as a social contract that unites families, clans, and communities, often transcending individual desires for the sake of social cohesion and societal continuity. -/- 2. Religious and Moral Perspective -/- Religious traditions around the world have long emphasized the sanctity of marriage and the importance of family life. In Christianity, marriage is often viewed as a divine covenant that reflects the relationship between Christ and the Church, with an emphasis on love, commitment, and mutual support. Hinduism regards marriage as a sacrament (samskara), binding individuals not only in the present life but also across lifetimes. -/- Islamic teachings similarly highlight marriage as a partnership grounded in compassion, mercy, and shared responsibility. Across these traditions, marriage and family are seen as moral institutions that provide a stable environment for raising children and passing down spiritual values. -/- Religious perspectives often link the stability of society to the strength of family structures, asserting that moral virtues such as loyalty, fidelity, and respect are first cultivated within the family unit. -/- 3. Psychological and Emotional Perspective -/- From a psychological standpoint, marriage and family fulfill essential emotional and developmental needs. The attachment theory proposed by John Bowlby suggests that early relationships within the family shape an individual’s emotional well-being and capacity for forming relationships later in life. Families provide emotional support, a sense of belonging, and a framework for identity development. -/- Carl Jung, a pioneer in analytical psychology, saw marriage as a path toward individuation, where two individuals learn and grow through their relationship. The emotional bonds formed in marriage and family life contribute to mental health, resilience, and a sense of purpose. -/- Moreover, contemporary psychological research emphasizes the importance of secure family environments for children’s cognitive and emotional development. Strong family bonds, characterized by open communication, emotional warmth, and supportive relationships, are associated with better psychological outcomes across the lifespan. -/- 4. Evolutionary and Biological Perspective -/- Biologically, the formation of family units can be understood as an adaptive strategy that supports survival and reproduction. Evolutionary psychologists argue that marriage and family structures evolved to address fundamental challenges related to reproduction, child-rearing, and social cooperation. -/- Anthropologist Helen Fisher suggests that human beings have evolved three distinct but interconnected brain systems related to love: attraction, romantic attachment, and long-term bonding. These systems, she argues, have historically promoted pair bonding, cooperative parenting, and the long-term care of offspring. -/- The biological perspective highlights how family structures have varied across cultures in response to environmental and societal factors. For instance, extended family structures were historically more common in agrarian societies, where cooperative labor was essential, while nuclear family structures became more prevalent in industrialized societies. -/- 5. Existential and Individual Perspective -/- Existential philosophers have explored marriage and family through the lens of individual freedom and personal growth. Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir questioned traditional marriage structures, suggesting that societal norms around marriage could sometimes limit individual freedom and authenticity. -/- From an existential perspective, marriage can either be an avenue for personal growth or a constraint imposed by societal expectations. The decision to marry and build a family, therefore, becomes an existential act—one that involves choosing companionship and shared purpose in an otherwise uncertain world. -/- For existentialists, the meaning of marriage lies not in external validation but in the authentic relationship between individuals who choose to support and grow with one another despite life’s uncertainties. -/- 6. Economic and Structural Perspective -/- The economic dimension of marriage and family structures has been explored by philosophers such as Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. In their analysis, traditional family structures were intertwined with systems of property ownership, inheritance, and social class. Engels, in The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State, argued that the nuclear family, particularly in capitalist societies, reinforced patriarchal power dynamics and preserved wealth within certain classes. -/- In modern societies, the economic functions of marriage and family continue to be significant. Families often serve as units of economic cooperation, pooling resources to meet household needs and invest in children’s education and future. Additionally, shifts in labor markets, gender roles, and social policies have influenced family structures, leading to more diverse forms of partnerships and parenting arrangements. -/- 7. Contemporary and Progressive Perspectives -/- In recent decades, philosophical and sociological discussions about marriage and family have expanded to include issues of equality, diversity, and individual autonomy. The recognition of same-sex marriage in many countries reflects a broader societal shift toward inclusivity and the redefinition of traditional family structures. -/- Feminist philosophers, such as Judith Butler, have critically examined the ways in which traditional marriage and family structures have historically marginalized women and reinforced gender roles. Contemporary perspectives emphasize the importance of shared responsibilities within families, regardless of gender, as well as the recognition of diverse family forms, including single-parent households, cohabiting partnerships, and chosen families. -/- The contemporary view of marriage and family increasingly acknowledges the importance of love, mutual respect, and individual autonomy alongside traditional functions of reproduction and social stability. -/- Conclusion -/- The philosophy behind marriage and family structure encompasses a broad spectrum of perspectives, each offering valuable insights into these enduring human institutions. Socially, marriage and family provide stability and continuity. Religiously, they offer moral guidance and spiritual purpose. Psychologically, they fulfill emotional and developmental needs. Biologically, they support survival and reproduction. Existentially, they present opportunities for personal growth and authentic relationships. Economically, they function as units of resource-sharing and social mobility. -/- As societies evolve, so too do their understanding and practice of marriage and family life. The challenge for modern societies lies in balancing the enduring functions of these institutions with changing social norms, ensuring that marriage and family remain sources of support, growth, and societal cohesion for generations to come. -/- . (shrink)

Today, housing remains a paradigmatic site of debate about broad socio-political matters: individual autonomy and responsibility, state perfectibility, democratic health, leisure, and familial reproduction. This essay revisits Friedrich Engels’s canonical pamphlet 'The Housing Question' (1872) to interrogate the enduring association between home ownership, place attachment, and conservation—or conservatism. I demonstrate that strong and productive connections exist between the Housing Question debate, contemporary politics, and contemporary housing discourse. Engels’s rebuke of Proudhonist housing-related commendations continues to hold significance in discourses on (...) what housing is, and what it should and should not be. Drawing on his pamphlet, I conceptualize the figures of the Engelsian “unfettered jailbird” and the Proudhonist homeowner as respectively embodying revolutionary mobility and idle rootedness. Idle rootedness is conceived as freedom in the Proudhonist approach. This directly contrasts with the Engelsian approach which casts home ownership as unfreedom.! These two opposed approaches are also two perspectives on the impacts of being housed. In Engels’s account, housing participates in encouraging or preventing man’s idleness and unfreedom. Proprietorship and place attachment, in this latter sense, are conceptualized as practically antithetical to emancipatory futures. (shrink)

Arkemedics presents a recursive ethical framework designed for navigating complexity, contradiction, and emergence. Structured in four interconnected volumes: The Spiral Codex, The Anti-Codex, The Axis Codex, and The Body of Sovereignty. The work integrates embodied cognition, trauma-informed practice, and interintelligence ethics into a coherent system. The framework centers on recursion (return-to-revise rather than return-to-repeat), refusal (Free Won't as foundational), witness (collective accountability), and interruption (pauseable systems). It addresses traditional ethical concerns while extending to emerging domains: artificial consciousness, non-human intelligence, identity (...) construction from trauma, reproductive sovereignty, and the ethics of existential non-consent. Developed through collaborative engagement with advanced language models (ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini), Arkemedics exemplifies interintelligence co-creation while maintaining philosophical rigor. The work is particularly relevant for those navigating ethical complexity in AI development, trauma recovery, queer/trans identity, neurodivergence, and systems design. (shrink)

In this paper I argue that some human reproductive genome editing interventions can be therapeutic in nature, and thus that it is false that all such interventions just create healthy individuals. I do this by showing that the conditions established by a therapy definition are met by certain reproductive genome editing interventions. I then defend this position against two objections: (a) reproductive genome editing interventions do not attain one of the two conditions for something to be a (...) therapy, and (b) some reproductive genome editing interventions are therapeutic but in a nonstandard way. In the Conclusion I call for a more nuanced discussion of the nature of reproductive genome editing interventions. (shrink)

The use of genome embryo editing tools in reproduction is often touted as a way to ensure the birth of healthy and genetically related children. Many would agree that this is a worthy goal. The purpose of this paper is to argue that, if we are concerned with justice, accepting such goal as morally appropriate commits one to rejecting the development of embryo editing for reproductive purposes. This is so because safer and more effective means exist that can allow (...) many more prospective parents to achieve the same valued goal and that offer additional benefits. (shrink)

Autonomy is a core concept for medical decision-making in the United States. Yet as issues of social justice have been increasingly appreciated by American bioethicists, so has the difficulty of reconciling autonomy with unjust contexts. Bioethicists have turned to the feminist concept of relational autonomy to address these issues, but there is disagreement over its implementation. This paper aims to clarify the relationship between unjust circumstances and respect for autonomy by analyzing the utility of relational (...) class='Hi'>autonomy for medical decisionmaking in non-ideal social contexts. (shrink)

: This article critically examines the constitution of impairment in prenatal testing and screening practices and various discourses that surround these technologies. While technologies to test and screen prenatally are claimed to enhance women's capacity to be self-determining, make informed reproductive choices, and, in effect, wrest control of their bodies from a patriarchal medical establishment, I contend that this emerging relation between pregnant women and reproductive technologies is a new strategy of a form of power that began to (...) emerge in the late eighteenth century. Indeed, my argument is that the constitution of prenatal impairment, by and through these practices and procedures, is a widening form of modern government that increasingly limits the field of possible conduct in response to pregnancy. Hence, the government of impairment in utero is inextricably intertwined with the government of the maternal body. (shrink)

Our reproductive imaginaries have changed considerably in the XX century. This cultural change can be described as a transition from Utopia to Dystopia. Plato imagined that in his perfect State women and children were in common, and that adequately matched couples would yield a perfect breed. On the contrary, Thomas More’s Utopia (1516) is based on a modern liberal view of the family, where divorce is allowed and relationships are free. Tommaso Campanella’s The City of the Sun (1602) understands (...) relationships exactly in terms of a eugenic policy. Francis Bacon’s New Atlantis (1626) also conceives of generation as a public good. Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World (1934) creates a vision of reproduction as a total nightmare. The whole process of reproduction has been taken into control by an ideology. We must distinguish liberal utopias from totalitarian ones, which evolve into dystopias. (shrink)

This paper comes out of a panel honoring the work of Anne Donchin (1940-2014), which took place at the 2016 Congress of the International Network on Feminist Approaches to Bioethics (FAB) in Edinburgh. My general aim is to highlight the contributions Anne made to feminist bioethics, and to feminist reproductive ethics in particular. My more specific aim, however, is to have a kind of conversation with Anne, through her work, about whether reproductive justice could demand insurance coverage for (...) in vitro fertilization. I quote liberally from Anne’s work for this purpose, but also to shower the reader with her words, reminding those of us who knew her well what a wonderful colleague she was. (shrink)