Persuasion and economic efficiency. The cost-benefit analysis of banning abortion

A simple cost-benefit approach to the abortion debate is unlikely to be persuasive if efficiency arguments conflict with widely held concepts of justice or rely on improbable notions of consent. Illustrative of the limitations of economic analyses are the models proposed by Meeks and Posner to make a case against abortion on demand. Meeks posits a tradeoff between the consumer surplus women gain from access to abortion and the expected loss of earnings that would have accrued to the aborted conceptuses. From here, Meeks derives the critical price elasticity that equates welfare gains and losses and argues that a ban on abortion represents a Kaldor-Hicks improvement in welfare if the price elasticity of demand falls above the critical level. Basic to his model are several questionable assumptions: an independence of ability to pay for an abortion and income, all women who select abortion have the same linear demand for the procedure, an abortion ban would eliminate the practice of abortion, economic efficiency generally requires slavery, and the morally relevant population includes the unborn. Posner, on the other hand, argues that an abortion ban would be efficient if the average surplus lost by a woman who chooses not to break the law is less than half the average value of the fetus saved. He assumes that it takes 1.83 abortions avoided to increase the population by 1 individual and favors reducing the current abortion rate by 30% rather than banning the procedure. Although Posner's model does not require specification of any particular value for the fetus, it neglects the increased health risk for pregnant women of illegal abortion. Moreover, Posner assumes that all women obey the law if it is in their economic interest to do so. Detrimental to both models is an assumption that sound normative judgments can be made on the basis of average values for observable data and the goal of maximizing wealth is logically prior to the specification of individual rights. It is concluded that economic arguments can be persuasive on the abortion issue only if there is agreement that cost-benefit analysis is an appropriate basis for decision making.     

Justice,sexual harassment,and the reasonable victim standard

In determining when sexual behavior in the workplace creates a hostile working environment, some courts have asked, ‘Would a reasonableperson view this as a hostile environment?’ Two recent court decisions, recognizing male-female differences in the perception of social sexual behavior at work, modified this standard to ask, “Would a reasonablevictim view this as a hostile environment?” As yet, there is no consensus in the legal community regarding which of these standards is just. We propose that moral theory provides the framework from which business people can construct just procedures regarding sexually hostile environments. We argue that the natural duty of mutual respect of persons and the natural duty not to harm the innocent compels business people to identify sexually hostile work environments from the perspective of the reasonable victim, usually from the woman's perspective. Within the context of this moral framework, a training approach designed to reduce the incidence of sexually harassing behaviors in the workplace is proposed.     

The new South African Constitution and its implications for development

The new constitutional dispensation will stimulate development activities for the Coloureds and Indians through community development and basic needs programmes which are mainly categorised as “own affairs”.

Local governmental institutions will become important additional instruments in this respect. The development backlog of Coloureds and Indians and its implications is sketched and the expectation is expressed that the dynamics of the new situation will lead to greater public expenditure for these needs. However, political demands for the realisation of development goals could outpace societal progress in terms of community development approaches, while the demographic distribution of Coloureds an Indians militates somewhat against their optimal drawing of benefit from decentralisation policies.