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9780190695996

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In his Life of Johnson, Boswell cites 'Madame de Sevigne, who, though she had many enjoyments, felt with delicate sensibility the prevalence of misery' and 'complains of the task of existence having been imposed upon her without her consent.' Given that no one can consent to the risks of misery inherent in coming into existence, this complaint raises the question of when it can be permissible to expose people to these risks by causing them to exist. This is the question addressed in Rivka Weinberg's fascinating and carefully argued book. Written with flair and comic wit that is unusual in philosophy, The Risk of a Lifetime defends a range of bold and controversial judgments about the morality of procreation. -- Jeff McMahan, White's Professor of Moral Philosophy, University of Oxford Rivka Weinberg rightly recognizes that life is a risk rather than a gift. Yet she thinks that it is a risk that is sometimes permissibly imposed. She provides an account of the conditions under which this is the case. En route to this conclusion she argues against both those who think that procreation is (almost) always wrong and those who say that it is (almost) always permissible. She writes with clarity, verve and humour, making the The Risk of a Lifetime a risk-free read even for those who will disagree with either her pessimistic inclinations or her relatively optimistic conclusions about the permissibility of procreation. -- David Benatar, Professor and Head of Philosophy, University of Cape Town, South Africa Weinberg's The Risk of a Lifetime treats underappreciated ethical issues of procreation with philosophical intelligence, insight, and flair. --Stephen Darwall, Andrew Downey Orrick Professor of Philosophy, Yale University .. .a well-argued, insightful, and lively discussion of the issues surrounding this underappreciated topic. -- Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews Online Weinberg's The Risk of a Lifetime is a must-read for anyone interested in procreative ethics generally or in understanding how a contractualist approach might be applied in the context of procreative ethics. Moreover, I can't think of a recent book that would be more valuable, more fun, or more engaging for students--or their instructors--in any mid-or upper-level course or seminar or in any graduate course in applied or normative ethics or in population ethics. -- Ethics

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Rivka Weinberg is Professor of Philosophy at Scripps College, Claremont. She received her PhD. in philosophy from the University of Michigan. As a philosopher and bioethicist, Weinberg specializes in ethical and metaphysical issues regarding birth and death.

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