Dear all
I want to add comments on Pearson Theory or Personhood.
In Japan, this concept is referred to as "Person Theory," but in English it seems to be called "Personhood."
American philosopher Michael Tooley, in response to the question "What is a human?", posited that only a "person" has the right to life as their criterion. According to this view, infants and those with severe disabilities who cannot express themselves are not a "person"; in other words, they lack human dignity. This view has been criticised in various ways, and Hugo Tristram Engelhardt Jr. added the concept of "person in the social sense." While infants, considering their rational capacity, are not persons in the strict sense, they are members of society because they receive care from their parents and those around them. In this sense, that is, "the ability to participate in minimal social interaction," the concept of "person" is added, and this application is also considered to apply to older people with dementia and people with disabilities.
Even though Personhood does not basically accept the lives of people with severe disabilities, whose will we cannot detect. When you check PubMed using the keywords" laryngotracheal separation and cerebral palsy", there are only seven papers. However, five of them are from Japan. That means people with severe cerebral palsy suffering from aspiration, maybe, don't have the right to receive this operation for their lives outside Japan. So, I want to know how this issue, the rights of the most severely disabled, is approached in other countries.
Kind regards,
Hajime
CHIFA profile
Hajime Takeuchi is a professor at the Bukkyo University in Japan. Professional interests: child health, child poverty, child wellbeing. takechanespid@gmail.com He is a CHIFA Country Representative for Japan and a member of the CHIFA Steering Group (child health and rights) http://www.hifa.org/support/members/hajime takechanespid AT gmail.com