David DeGrazia · September 2009
77 GEO. WASH. L. REV. 1216 (2009)
To whom or what do we have moral obligations? To whom or what should we have legal obligations? Is it possible that some recipients, or beneficiaries, of our obligations are not currently existing persons? Might some of them be human beings who are not persons? Or nonhuman animals? Might some recipients of our obligations be persons who do not currently exist but will, or may, exist in the future? If so, what is the basis of the obligations in question? While the conference symposium that included my presentation focused on obligations to future generations, the present discussion will also comment on the cases of human and animal nonpersons. The discussion will draw selectively from the papers by Robert Hockett and Ori J. Herstein.
