Assessing Baselines for Identifying Harm: Tricky Cases and Childhood

Res Publica 22 (4):387-404 (2016)
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Abstract

Baselines are commonly used to enable harm identification. The temporal, the counterfactual and the duty-based normative baselines are the most prominent. Each of these captures an aspect of common conceptions of what it is to harm and be harmed. However, each baseline also fails to deliver workable identifications of harm when presented with certain types of case. Problematic cases are found readily in childhood, a venue in which harm identification is often called for. Without a reliable means of identifying harm in childhood, harm cannot properly play a central role in normative assessments of parental practices and state intervention. This paper presents childhood cases in which the prominent baselines fail and offers an alternative: the interest-based normative baseline. Should the interest-based normative baseline replace its rivals and reign supreme? I argue not, presenting a case for maintaining a suite of baselines for use in varying contexts.

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Zarar İlkesi Üzerine: Üç Temel Eleştiriyi Tartışmak.Utku Ataş - 2024 - Kaygı. Bursa Uludağ Üniversitesi Fen-Edebiyat Fakültesi Felsefe Dergisi 23 (1):68-93.

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Just Health: Meeting Health Needs Fairly.Norman Daniels - 2007 - Cambridge University Press.
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Exploitation.Alan Wertheimer - 1996 - Princeton University Press.

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