David Degrazia
Biographic Data
| ID | 460237 |
|---|---|
| NAME | David Degrazia |
| GIVEN NAMES | David |
| FAMILY NAME | Degrazia |
| SIGNATURE | DEGRAZIA D |
| AFFILIATIONS | George Washington University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-1776-6569 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 26 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 31 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 26 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1991 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
Ethicists and the Gaza War
Do bioethicists have an obligation to speak out against such atrocities as Hamas' terrorism and Israel's war crimes? I will argue that they do have such an obligation, but not because they are bioethicists or even ethicists. Before driving home this conclusion, I will highlight some crucial facts in applying criteria for ethical engagement in warfare. Although I maintain that Hamas' terrorist attack of October 7 involved crimes against humanity t…
Leveraging a Sturdy Norm
Rarely do everyday discussions of ethical issues invoke ethical theories. Even ethicists deploy ethical theories less frequently than one might expect. In my experience, the most powerful ethical arguments rarely appeal to an ethical theory. How is this possible? I contend that ethical argumentation can proceed successfully without invoking any ethical theory because the structure of good ethical argumentation involves leveraging a sturdy norm, w…
Dialogues on Gun Control
What happens when two intelligent American college students with different attitudes about guns launch into a careful exploration of the ethics of gun policy? What might a European exchange student add to the mix? All three characters in this book are fictional, the creation of author David DeGrazia’s imagination. But their vigorous, respectful conversations over six meetings—well-informed by the latest empirical data and the best available philo…
On Ethicists and Their Diets
Factory farming is one of the most destructive institutions in human history. In the United States alone, it raises and kills ten billion animals every year. Conditions in which animals live and the way they are treated in transit are exceptionally cruel. Factory farming is also an environmental disaster. Do ethicists have a greater obligation than the average person to maintain an ethical diet? Various psychological and cultural factors explain …
A Theory of Bioethics
This volume offers a carefully argued, compelling theory of bioethics while eliciting practical implications for a wide array of issues including medical assistance-in-dying, the right to health care, abortion, animal research, and the definition of death. The authors' dual-value theory features mid-level principles, a distinctive model of moral status, a subjective account of well-being, and a cosmopolitan view of global justice. In addition to …
Theory of Bioethics
Regulating international clinical research
The global distribution of clinical trials is shifting to low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs), and adequate regulations are essential for protecting the rights and interests of research participants in these countries. However, policy-makers in LMICs can face an ethical trade-off: stringent regulatory protections for participants can lead researchers or sponsors to conduct their research elsewhere, potentially depriving the local popul…
Can Knowledge Itself Justify Harmful Research
In our paper, we argue for three necessary conditions for morally permissible animal research: (1) an assertion (or expectation) of sufficient net benefit, (2) a worthwhile-life condition, and (3) a no-unnecessary-harm/qualified-basic-needs condition. 1 We argue that these conditions are necessary, without taking a position on whether they are jointly sufficient. In their excellent commentary on our paper, Matthias Eggel, Carolyn Neuhaus, and Her…
Human‐Animal Chimeras, “Human” Cognitive Capacities, and Moral Status
In “Human‐Animal Chimeras: The Moral Insignificance of Uniquely Human Capacities,” Julian Koplin explores a promising way of thinking about moral status. Without attempting to develop a model in any detail, Koplin picks up Joshua Shepherd's interesting proposal that we think about moral status in terms of the value of different kinds of conscious experience. For example, a being with the most basic sort of consciousness and sentience would have i…
Nonhuman Primates, Human Need, and Ethical Constraints
“The Ethics of Infection Challenges in Primates,” by Anne Barnhill, Steven Joffe, and Franklin Miller, is an exceptionally timely contribution to the literature on animal research ethics. Animal research has long been both a source of high hopes and a cause for moral concern. When it comes to infection challenge studies with nonhuman primates, neither the hope—to save thousands of human lives from such diseases as Ebola and Marburg—nor the concer…
Animals and Public Health
Book Review| April 01 2013 Animals and Public Health: Why Treating Animals Better Is Critical to Human Welfare Animals and Public Health: Why Treating Animals Better Is Critical to Human Welfare. By Aysha Akhtar. (London, England: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012. 247 pp. $85.00/£50.00. ISBN: 978-0-230-24973-8). David DeGrazia David DeGrazia Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Journal of Animal Ethics (2013) 3 (1): 108–109. https:/…
Moral Status As a Matter of Degree?
Some people contend that fetuses have moral status but less than that of paradigm persons. Many people hold views implying that sentient animals have moral status but less than that of persons. These positions suggest that moral status admits of degrees. Does it? To address this question, we must first clarify what it means to speak of degrees of moral status. The paper begins by clarifying the more basic concept of moral status and presenting tw…
The Harm of Death, Time‐relative Interests, and Abortion 1
Human Identity and Bioethics
When philosophers address personal identity, they usually explore numerical identity: what are the criteria for a person's continuing existence? When non-philosophers address personal identity, they often have in mind narrative identity: Which characteristics of a particular person are salient to her self-conception? This book develops accounts of both senses of identity, arguing that both are normatively important, and is unique in its explorati…
A Reply to Bradley Lewis's “Prozac and the Post-human Politics of Cyborgs”
Identity, Killing, and the Boundaries of Our Existence
Animal Rights
Animal Rights: A Very Short Introduction explores the implications for how we should treat animals in connection with our diet, zoos, and research. Most people are opposed to cruelty and sense that animals have moral significance. At the same time, traditional views that sanction animal use with few constraints have heavily influenced beliefs and everyday practices. How should we understand the moral status of animals vis-à-vis human beings? Do a…
Prozac, Enhancement, and Self-Creation
Marina's history is notable for significant childhood neglect. After her parents split up when she was four, her father became distant and mostly uninvolved and her mother suffered from depression and a borderline case of alcoholism. Although involved in Marina's day-to-day life, she was inconsistently available on an emotional level. Because Marina was the oldest child and apparently her shit together, she was often called on to help out with he…
Animal Ethics Around the Turn of the Twenty-First Century
Taking Animals Seriously
Taking Animals Seriously
This book distinguishes itself from much of the polemical literature on these issues by offering the most judicious and well-balanced account yet available of animals' moral standing, and related questions concerning their minds and welfare. Transcending jejune debates focused on utilitarianism versus rights, the book offers a fresh methodological approach with specific and constructive conclusions about our treatment of animals. David DeGrazia p…
Taking animals seriously
What sort of minds do animals have? Do they have feelings, desires, or beliefs? Are they capable of self-awareness, language, or autonomy? Do animals have moral standing, and if so, how seriously should we take their interests when they conflict with human interests? This book distinguishes itself from the sometimes polemical literature on these issues by offering the most judicious and balanced exploration yet available of animals' moral standin…
Momento mori
Equal Consideration and Unequal Moral Status
Gewirth
As one of the most important ethicists to emerge since the Second World War, Alan Gewirth continues to influence philosophical debates concerning morality. In this ground-breaking book, Gewirth's neo-Kantianism, and the communitarian problems discussed, form a dialogue on the foundation of moral theory. Themes of agent-centered constraints, the formal structure of theories, and the relationship between freedom and duty are examined along with suc…
Animal Rights
Animal Rights: A Very Short Introduction explores the implications for how we should treat animals in connection with our diet, zoos, and research. Most people are opposed to cruelty and sense that animals have moral significance. At the same time, traditional views that sanction animal use with few constraints have heavily influenced beliefs and everyday practices. How should we understand the moral status of animals vis-à-vis human beings? Do a…
Animal Ethics Around the Turn of the Twenty-First Century
Identity, Killing, and the Boundaries of Our Existence
Animal Ethics Reconsidered
Equal Consideration and Unequal Moral Status
Momento mori
Taking Animals Seriously
This book distinguishes itself from much of the polemical literature on these issues by offering the most judicious and well-balanced account yet available of animals' moral standing, and related questions concerning their minds and welfare. Transcending jejune debates focused on utilitarianism versus rights, the book offers a fresh methodological approach with specific and constructive conclusions about our treatment of animals. David DeGrazia p…
Taking animals seriously
What sort of minds do animals have? Do they have feelings, desires, or beliefs? Are they capable of self-awareness, language, or autonomy? Do animals have moral standing, and if so, how seriously should we take their interests when they conflict with human interests? This book distinguishes itself from the sometimes polemical literature on these issues by offering the most judicious and balanced exploration yet available of animals' moral standin…
Animal Ethics Around the Turn of the Twenty-First Century
Taking Animals Seriously
Prozac, Enhancement, and Self-Creation
Marina's history is notable for significant childhood neglect. After her parents split up when she was four, her father became distant and mostly uninvolved and her mother suffered from depression and a borderline case of alcoholism. Although involved in Marina's day-to-day life, she was inconsistently available on an emotional level. Because Marina was the oldest child and apparently her shit together, she was often called on to help out with he…
Animal Rights
Animal Rights: A Very Short Introduction explores the implications for how we should treat animals in connection with our diet, zoos, and research. Most people are opposed to cruelty and sense that animals have moral significance. At the same time, traditional views that sanction animal use with few constraints have heavily influenced beliefs and everyday practices. How should we understand the moral status of animals vis-à-vis human beings? Do a…
A Reply to Bradley Lewis's “Prozac and the Post-human Politics of Cyborgs”
Identity, Killing, and the Boundaries of Our Existence
Human Identity and Bioethics
When philosophers address personal identity, they usually explore numerical identity: what are the criteria for a person's continuing existence? When non-philosophers address personal identity, they often have in mind narrative identity: Which characteristics of a particular person are salient to her self-conception? This book develops accounts of both senses of identity, arguing that both are normatively important, and is unique in its explorati…
The Harm of Death, Time‐relative Interests, and Abortion 1
Moral Status As a Matter of Degree?
Some people contend that fetuses have moral status but less than that of paradigm persons. Many people hold views implying that sentient animals have moral status but less than that of persons. These positions suggest that moral status admits of degrees. Does it? To address this question, we must first clarify what it means to speak of degrees of moral status. The paper begins by clarifying the more basic concept of moral status and presenting tw…
Animals and Public Health
Book Review| April 01 2013 Animals and Public Health: Why Treating Animals Better Is Critical to Human Welfare Animals and Public Health: Why Treating Animals Better Is Critical to Human Welfare. By Aysha Akhtar. (London, England: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012. 247 pp. $85.00/£50.00. ISBN: 978-0-230-24973-8). David DeGrazia David DeGrazia Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Journal of Animal Ethics (2013) 3 (1): 108–109. https:/…
Nonhuman Primates, Human Need, and Ethical Constraints
“The Ethics of Infection Challenges in Primates,” by Anne Barnhill, Steven Joffe, and Franklin Miller, is an exceptionally timely contribution to the literature on animal research ethics. Animal research has long been both a source of high hopes and a cause for moral concern. When it comes to infection challenge studies with nonhuman primates, neither the hope—to save thousands of human lives from such diseases as Ebola and Marburg—nor the concer…
Human‐Animal Chimeras, “Human” Cognitive Capacities, and Moral Status
In “Human‐Animal Chimeras: The Moral Insignificance of Uniquely Human Capacities,” Julian Koplin explores a promising way of thinking about moral status. Without attempting to develop a model in any detail, Koplin picks up Joshua Shepherd's interesting proposal that we think about moral status in terms of the value of different kinds of conscious experience. For example, a being with the most basic sort of consciousness and sentience would have i…
Regulating international clinical research
The global distribution of clinical trials is shifting to low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs), and adequate regulations are essential for protecting the rights and interests of research participants in these countries. However, policy-makers in LMICs can face an ethical trade-off: stringent regulatory protections for participants can lead researchers or sponsors to conduct their research elsewhere, potentially depriving the local popul…
Can Knowledge Itself Justify Harmful Research
In our paper, we argue for three necessary conditions for morally permissible animal research: (1) an assertion (or expectation) of sufficient net benefit, (2) a worthwhile-life condition, and (3) a no-unnecessary-harm/qualified-basic-needs condition. 1 We argue that these conditions are necessary, without taking a position on whether they are jointly sufficient. In their excellent commentary on our paper, Matthias Eggel, Carolyn Neuhaus, and Her…
A Theory of Bioethics
This volume offers a carefully argued, compelling theory of bioethics while eliciting practical implications for a wide array of issues including medical assistance-in-dying, the right to health care, abortion, animal research, and the definition of death. The authors' dual-value theory features mid-level principles, a distinctive model of moral status, a subjective account of well-being, and a cosmopolitan view of global justice. In addition to …
Theory of Bioethics
On Ethicists and Their Diets
Factory farming is one of the most destructive institutions in human history. In the United States alone, it raises and kills ten billion animals every year. Conditions in which animals live and the way they are treated in transit are exceptionally cruel. Factory farming is also an environmental disaster. Do ethicists have a greater obligation than the average person to maintain an ethical diet? Various psychological and cultural factors explain …
Dialogues on Gun Control
What happens when two intelligent American college students with different attitudes about guns launch into a careful exploration of the ethics of gun policy? What might a European exchange student add to the mix? All three characters in this book are fictional, the creation of author David DeGrazia’s imagination. But their vigorous, respectful conversations over six meetings—well-informed by the latest empirical data and the best available philo…
Gewirth
As one of the most important ethicists to emerge since the Second World War, Alan Gewirth continues to influence philosophical debates concerning morality. In this ground-breaking book, Gewirth's neo-Kantianism, and the communitarian problems discussed, form a dialogue on the foundation of moral theory. Themes of agent-centered constraints, the formal structure of theories, and the relationship between freedom and duty are examined along with suc…
Leveraging a Sturdy Norm
Rarely do everyday discussions of ethical issues invoke ethical theories. Even ethicists deploy ethical theories less frequently than one might expect. In my experience, the most powerful ethical arguments rarely appeal to an ethical theory. How is this possible? I contend that ethical argumentation can proceed successfully without invoking any ethical theory because the structure of good ethical argumentation involves leveraging a sturdy norm, w…
Political science (14 works) · Sociology (13 works) · Law (12 works) · Philosophy (12 works) · Psychology (12 works) · Environmental ethics (9 works) · Epistemology (9 works) · Computer Science (8 works) · Biology (7 works) · Ethics in medical practice (7 works)