Elegiac Subjunctive, or, Secular Variations on Posthumous Personhood

Secular variations in sperm quality: fact or science fiction?

The debate concerning the possible degradation in human sperm quality began in the 1970s, was revived at the beginning of the 1990s and has continued to mobilize the scientific community ever since. After the meta-analysis by Carlsen et al. (1992) showing a decline in human semen quality over the last 50 years, several groups investigated the sperm characteristics of more or less homogeneous gr...

Having Babies: Personhood or Product?

One out of every six married couples experiences infertility at some point in their relationship. Most couples expect and desire to conceive children, and thus fulfill their “procreative duty.” However, this desire is interrupted by the pain of childlessness. Modern technology has responded through procedures such as artificial insemination or in vitro fertilization (IVF). If these technologies...

Personhood and neuroscience: naturalizing or nihilating?

Personhood is a foundational concept in ethics, yet defining criteria have been elusive. In this article we summarize attempts to define personhood in psychological and neurological terms and conclude that none manage to be both specific and non-arbitrary. We propose that this is because the concept does not correspond to any real category of objects in the world. Rather, it is the product of a...

Fractal Analysis for Geomagnetic Secular Variations

Posthumous reproduction.