Theo Todman's Web Page - Paper Abstracts

Philosophers Index Abstract

I propose here what I take to be decisive, morally neutral definitions of the boundaries of human life - that is, of the distinction between human becomings and human beings, and the distinction between human beings and human has-beens. I give reasons for thinking that, for moral theory, these definitions are preferable to ones framed in terms of "morally relevant" characteristics. I argue, against life-cycle and personhood accounts, that the becoming/being boundary lies at the completion of the metamorphic phase of (biological) generative development; and, against brain-death accounts, that the being/has-been boundary lies at the functional disintegration of the human (biological) organism.