I, me, mine: Body-ownership and the generation problem

• Main Author: Woollard, Fiona (Author)
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: 2017-12-27.
• Subjects: Article
• Online Access: Get fulltext

The Body Ownership Thesis states that each person owns her body. I address a prominent objection, the Generation Problem: the Body Ownership Thesis apparently implies that parents own their children: as we own the fruit of our property, if a parent owns her own body, she must own her child and her child's body. I argue that a person does not own the fruit of her property when that fruit is a person or the body of a person. Persons have conclusive title to their bodies, but only defeasible title to the fruits of their bodies