J. David Velleman (New York University - Department of Philosophy) has posted The Gift of Life on SSRN. Here is the abstract:
This is the first of three papers on questions of identity, existence, and nonexistence. (The other two are Love and Nonexistence and The Identity Problem.) In this paper I draw on Seana Shiffrin's work on wrongful life to argue that human life is not a gift but a predicament, and that a biological parent's obligation to help offspring cope with that predicament cannot be contracted out to others at will.
