Matti Häyry
Biographic Data
| ID | 698909 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Matti Häyry |
| GIVEN NAMES | Matti |
| FAMILY NAME | Häyry |
| SIGNATURE | HÄYRY M |
| AFFILIATIONS | Aalto University |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-4276-4757 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 53 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 9 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 53 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1988 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
Taking the Right to Die Seriously
This article offers a Hohfeldian analysis of the right to die and asks what follows, normatively and institutionally, once the relevant incidents are distinguished. It argues that debates about assisted dying frequently conflate four questions: whether choosing death is morally permitted (licence), whether others must not interfere with that choice (negative claim-right), whether a valid request can alter others' normative situation (normative po…
Justainability
Sustainability, properly understood, is an existential moral ideal. The United Nations, however, defines it in terms of 17 indivisible sustainable development goals. This definition changes the core idea of the concept. It turns sustainability from a moral ideal into a set of economy-based political aspirations. The European Union’s bioeconomy strategy demonstrates the shift aptly and reveals its main problem. When economy is prioritized, social …
Fifty Years of Killing and Letting Die
In 1975, The New England Journal of Medicine published James Rachels' article ‘Active and Passive Euthanasia’. The argumentative method that Rachels introduced, the Bare Difference Argument (also known as the Contrast Strategy), became one of the most widely used tools in ethical reasoning. The argument, however, fails to show active euthanasia being morally permissible. It fails because Rachels takes the intuitions from the case where letting di…
Out There No One Has a Right to Die
The eventual goal of space exploration is to colonize exoplanets and their moons outside our solar system. This is a dangerous and immoral endeavour. The extraterrestrial life forms encountered would be hostile, vulnerable or both, and the descendants of the original pioneers would be involuntarily exposed to hazardous conditions and totalitarian regimes. They would have little or no control over their lives, reproduction, or death. Even in the u…
Human Antinatalism and the Limits of Bipolar Pessimism
David Benatar’s Better Never to Have Been (2006) presents a view that came to be known as antinatalism: the claim that it is always wrong to have children, because life is bad, death is bad, and the only way to avoid both is never to be brought into existence. Benatar argues that his two-barreled—or “bipolar”—pessimism is not limited to humans but applies equally to all sentient beings. This extension, however, is prone to producing theoretical c…
Whither Sentience
This special issue is devoted to the question of sentience and its ethical implications. Sparked by debates in contemporary science and bioethics, the theme addresses one of the most fundamental and contested concepts in moral philosophy: what it means to be sentient, why it matters, and how our understanding of it should guide practices, policies, and ethical reasoning. While the idea of sentience has long been central to questions of moral stan…
Bioethics and the Value of Human Life
Bioethics as a philosophical discipline deals with matters of life and death. How it deals with them, however, depends on the kind of life particular bioethicists focus on and the kind of value they assign to it. Natural-law ethicists and conservative Kantians emphasize biological human life regardless of its developmental stage. Integrative bioethicists also embrace nonhuman life if it can be protected without harming humans. Liberal and utilita…
The Unthinkable Conclusion
Derek Parfit famously opined that causing a person to exist with a life barely worth living can be wrong, although it is not wrong for that person. This conundrum is known as the nonidentity problem. Parfit also held that persons can, in a morally relevant sense, be caused to exist in the distant future by actions that make the agent a necessary condition for a person’s existence. When these views are combined, which he did, and applied explicitl…
Sentience and Beyond—A Representative Interview With Peter Singer AI
This interview with Peter Singer AI serves a dual purpose. It is an exploration of certain—utilitarian and related—views on sentience and its ethical implications. It is also an exercise in the emerging interaction between natural and artificial intelligence, presented not as just ethics of AI but perhaps more importantly, as ethics with AI. The one asking the questions—Matti Häyry—is a person, in the contemporary sense of the word, sentient and …
Values of Life
This special section brings together international scholars celebrating the 40 th anniversary of John Harris’ book, The Value of Life: An Introduction to Medical Ethics (1985), and John Harris and his contributions to the field of bioethics more generally
Antinatalism, Extinction, and the End of Procreative Self-Corruption
This Element provides an exploration of antinatalism, the view that assigns a negative value to reproduction. First, the history of Western philosophy as a two-and-a-half millennia reaction to antinatalist sentiments. Human life has no obvious meaning and philosophers have been forced to build elaborate theories to invent imaginary purposes. Second, analysis of the concept of antinatalism in the light of human extinction. If people stop having ch…
Just Transition to Ethical Sustainability
Ethical sustainability would require that social and ecological matters are taken as seriously as economic considerations in political and legislative decision making. Currently they are not, although international policy makers are well aware of the requirement. We examine philosophically the possibility of making a shift transition from the current situation to ethical sustainability. Our main tools in the task are a thought experiment and the …
Imposing a Lifestyle
Antinatalism is an emerging philosophy and practice that challenges pronatalism, the prevailing philosophy and practice in reproductive matters. We explore justifications of antinatalism—the arguments from the quality of life, the risk of an intolerable life, the lack of consent, and the asymmetry of good and bad—and argue that none of them supports a concrete, understandable, and convincing moral case for not having children. We identify concent…
If You Must Give Them a Gift, Then Give Them the Gift of Nonexistence
I present a qualified new defense of antinatalism. It is intended to empower potential parents who worry about their possible children’s life quality in a world threatened by environmental degradation, climate change, and the like. The main elements of the defense are an understanding of antinatalism’s historical nature and contemporary varieties, a positional theory of value based on Epicurean hedonism and Schopenhauerian pessimism, and a sensit…
Confessions of an Antinatalist Philosopher
Antinatalism assigns reproduction a negative value. There should be fewer or no births. Those who say that there should be fewer births have been called conditional antinatalists. A better name for their view would be selective pronatalism. Those who say that there should be no births face two challenges. They must define the scope of their no-birth policy. Does it apply only to human or sentient beings or can it also be extended to all organic l…
Theories or No Theories—Is Anything Evolving
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Exit Duty Generator
This article presents a revised version of negative utilitarianism. Previous versions have relied on a hedonistic theory of value and stated that suffering should be minimized. The traditional rebuttal is that the doctrine in this form morally requires us to end all sentient life. To avoid this, a need-based theory of value is introduced. The frustration of the needs not to suffer and not to have one’s autonomy dwarfed should, prima facie , be de…
Why it is rational to expect the horrible – The future of humanity and climate change
Publisher Copyright: © 2024 South African Journal of Philosophy
Climate change and anti-natalism
Publisher Copyright: © 2024 South African Journal of Philosophy
Procreative Generosity
We should not have children because (i) we have no child-regarding reasons to do so, (ii) we have child-regarding reasons not to do so, and (iii) although we have other-regarding reasons to do so, these reasons are not decisive. Objections to (i) include that life is always good and that possible individuals would choose life if given the opportunity. These fail if there is no duty to create even a good life (the argument from asymmetry), all liv…
Are some controversial views in bioethics Juvenalian satire without irony
The article examines five controversial views, expressed in Jonathan Swift’s A Modest Proposal , Helga Kuhse and Peter Singer’s Should the Baby Live? The Problem of Handicapped Infants , Alberto Giubilini and Francesca Minerva’s “After-birth abortion: why should the baby live?”, Julian Savulescu’s “Procreative beneficence: why we should select the best children”, and the author’s “A rational cure for prereproductive stress syndrome”. These views …
Introduction
Physicians Controlling Women’s Reproductive Choices
This paper provides an overview of the development and the sociopolitical background of legislation pertaining to abortion in Finland from the nineteenth century to the current day. The first Abortion Act came to force in 1950. Before that, abortions were handled under criminal law. The 1950 law was restrictive and allowed abortions in very limited circumstances only. Its main aim was to reduce the number of abortions and especially illegal abort…
Roe v. Wade and the Predatory State Interest in Protecting Future Cannon Fodder
The reversal of Roe v. Wade by the U.S. Supreme Court allowed the states to regulate terminations of pregnancy more autonomously than during 1973–2022. Those who think that women should be legally entitled to abortions at their own request are suggesting that annulling the reversal could be an option. This would mean continued reliance on the interpretation of privacy that Roe v. Wade stood on. The interpretation does not have the moral support t…
Antinatalism—Solving everything everywhere all at once
In 2019, an Indian man named Raphael Samuel was planning to sue his parents for giving birth to him without his consent.1 Samuel believed that it was wrong to bring children into the world and subject them to a lifetime of suffering. A similar premise is depicted in a 2018 Lebanese movie directed by Nadine Labaki, where a 12-year-old child from the slums of Beirut intends to sue his parents.2 The boy is brought before a court, having decided to t…
Just Better Utilitarianism
Utilitarianism could still be a viable moral and political theory, although an emphasis on justice as distributing burdens and benefits has hidden this from current conversations. The traditional counterexamples prove that we have good grounds for rejecting classical, aggregative forms of consequentialism. A nonaggregative, liberal form of utilitarianism is immune to this rejection. The cost is that it cannot adjudicate when the basic needs of in…
Obedience to Rules and Berkeley's Theological Utilitarianism
According to what one might call ‘indirect” forms of utilitarian thinking, the proper end of all human action is the greatest happiness of the greatest number of individuals, but due to the fallibility of moral agents this end cannot, and must not, be directly pursued. Instead, according to at least one version of the indirect theory, moral agents have a duty to act in conformity with a set of general rules which, in their turn, have been designe…
Why it is rational to expect the horrible – The future of humanity and climate change
Publisher Copyright: © 2024 South African Journal of Philosophy
Elements of Constraint
This paper analyses the various effects of threats and offers on freedom. Both threats and offers are related to social power. Threats are part of coercion and they are constraints. We try to say why this is so. Offers are more problematic. We identify soft and hard offers, or offers that can be refused and those that cannot. Hard offers have several interesting features, especially in relation to individual preference orders and sets of action a…
Paternalism and finnish anti-smoking policy
Critical Studies in Philosophical Medical Ethics
Moral Relativism and the Philosophical Criticism of Other Cultures
Obedience to Rules and Berkeley's Theological Utilitarianism
According to what one might call ‘indirect” forms of utilitarian thinking, the proper end of all human action is the greatest happiness of the greatest number of individuals, but due to the fallibility of moral agents this end cannot, and must not, be directly pursued. Instead, according to at least one version of the indirect theory, moral agents have a duty to act in conformity with a set of general rules which, in their turn, have been designe…
How to Apply Ethical Principles to the Biotechnological Production of Food – The Case of Bovine Growth Hormone
Is Communitarian Thinking Altruistic
The aim of this paper is to expose the problematic nature of claims concerning the altruistic or egoistic foundations of popular theories of political philosophy. Altruism and egoism are complex psychological and ethical concepts, which cannot be straightforwardly employed to defend or to attack equally complex doctrines like communitarianism and liberalism
Human Dignity, Bioethics, and Human Rights
The authors analyse and assess the Universal Draft Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights published by UNESCO. They argue that the Draft has two main weaknesses. It unnecessarily confines the scope of bioethics to life sciences and their practical applications. And it fails to spell out the intended role of human dignity in international ethical regulation
The Historical Idea of a Better Race
This paper explores the historical idea of improving humanity. Developments in genetics and political thought have during the last century contributed to eugenic policies which have sometimes had adverse effects on people's lives. But European philosophy has seen attempts to make better human beings long before the current scientific advances. The paper explores these attempts by an examination of the doctrines of Plato, Aristotle, Condorcet, Her…
Generous Funding for Interventive Aging Research Now
This article examines Aubrey de Grey's case for allocating substantial funding to interventive biogerontological research immediately. The conclusion is that the case is inconclusive and that scientific analyses of costs and probabilities would be needed to defend it properly
Introduction
Justice, both in theory and in practice, is a crucial matter in global ethics. On 29 August 2014, a research symposium – ‘Global Ethics and Justice’ – was held at the Aalto University School of Bus
Disability as a test of justice in a globalising world
This paper shows how most modern theories of justice could require or at least condone international aid aimed at alleviating the ill effects of disability. Seen from the general viewpoint of liberal egalitarianism, this is moderately encouraging, since according to the creed people in bad positions should be aided, and disability tends to put people in such positions. The actual responses of many theories, including John Rawls's famous view of j…
Causation, Responsibility, and Harm
Moral and political philosophers no longer condemn harm inflicted on nonhuman animals as self-evidently as they did when animal welfare and animal rights advocacy was at the forefront in the 1980s, and sentience, suffering, species-typical behavior, and personhood were the basic concepts of the discussion. The article shows this by comparing the determination with which societies seek responsibility for human harm to the relative indifference wit…
Commentary
In her thorough and thoughtful contribution to the Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics titled “Medical Ethics: Common or Uncommon Morality” Rosamond Rhodes argues that contrary to American mainstream bioethics, medical ethics is not, and should not be, based on common morality, but rather, that the medical profession requires its own distinctive morality. 1 She goes on to list sixteen duties that, according to her, form the core of medical e…
Just Better Utilitarianism
Utilitarianism could still be a viable moral and political theory, although an emphasis on justice as distributing burdens and benefits has hidden this from current conversations. The traditional counterexamples prove that we have good grounds for rejecting classical, aggregative forms of consequentialism. A nonaggregative, liberal form of utilitarianism is immune to this rejection. The cost is that it cannot adjudicate when the basic needs of in…
Priorities for social science and humanities research on the challenges of moving beyond animal-based food systems
Increasingly high-profile research is being undertaken into the socio-environmental challenges associated with the over-production and consumption of food from animals. Transforming food systems to mitigate climate change and hidden hunger, ensure food security and good health all point to reducing animal-based foods as a key lever. Moving beyond animal-based food systems is a societal grand challenge requiring coordinated international research …
The Covid-19 Pandemic
The role of bioethicists amidst crises like the COVID-19 pandemic is not well defined. As professionals in the field, they should respond, but how? The observation of the early days of pandemic confinement in Finland showed that moral philosophers with limited experience in bioethics tended to apply their favorite theories to public decisions with varying results. Medical ethicists were more likely to lend support to the public authorities by soo…
Decisionmaking and Leadership in Crises and Beyond
Bioethics is about decisionmaking. It is also about leadership in the making and implementing of those decisions, as we have seen during the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic. 1 , 2 This special section presents a collection of views on how we should proceed in the current crisis and beyond
The Covid-19 Pandemic
The role of bioethicists amidst crises like the COVID-19 pandemic is not well defined. As professionals in the field, they should respond, but how? The observation of the early days of pandemic confinement in Finland showed that moral philosophers with limited experience in bioethics tended to apply their favorite theories to public decisions, with varying results. Medical ethicists were more likely to lend support to the public authorities by so…
The Covid-19 Pandemic
Governmental reactions to crises like the COVID-19 pandemic can be seen as ethics communication. Governments can contain the disease and thereby mitigate the detrimental public health impact; allow the virus to spread to reach herd immunity; test, track, isolate, and treat; and suppress the disease regionally. An observation of Sweden and Finland showed a difference in feasible ways to communicate the chosen policy to the citizenry. Sweden assume…
Oikeudenmukaisuus, tasapuoliset neuvonantajat ja kopatia Covid-19-pandemian valossa
Scarcity, Justice, and Health Crisis Leadership
The COVID-19 pandemic has created or revealed scarcities in many domains: medical, civic, economic, and ideological. Responses to these are analyzed in the framework of a map of justice and an imperative of openness. The main argument is that whatever the view of justice chosen by public health authorities, they should be able and willing to disclose it to the citizens. Objections are considered and qualifications added, but the general conclusio…
Covid-19
Common and Uncommon Moralities in Bioethics
The role, and indeed the very existence, of common morality has been a contested matter
Covid-19
Is there such a thing as corona solidarity? Does voluntary mutual aid solve the problems caused by COVID-19? I argue that the answer to the first question is “yes” and to the second “no.” Not that the answer to the second question could not, in an ideal world, be “yes,” too. It is just that in this world of global capitalism and everybody looking out for themselves, the kind of communal warmth celebrated by the media either does not actually exis…
Sociology (33 works) · Political science (31 works) · Law (25 works) · Philosophy (25 works) · Epistemology (20 works) · Ethics in medical practice (17 works) · Environmental ethics (16 works) · Psychology (16 works) · Economics (15 works) · Medicine (14 works)