Evictionism and Libertarianism: Some Pressure Points
Evictionism and Libertarianism: Some Pressure Points

Author(s): Łukasz M. Dominiak
Subject(s): Gender Studies, Human Rights and Humanitarian Law, Political Philosophy, Health and medicine and law
Published by: Addleton Academic Publishers
Keywords: Evictionism; Non-aggression principle; Fetus as trespasser; Gentleness principle;
Summary/Abstract: As we all know, Walter Block has made an extremely important contribution to both bioethics and libertarianism by putting forth his theory of evictionism (e.g. Block 2010; Block 2011a; Block 2011b; Block 2011c; Block 2014a; Block 2014b; Block 2021). What this theory does is to apply some libertarian principles – such as, inter alia, the non-aggression principle, self-ownership principle, principle of strict liability or gentleness principle – to the ethical dilemma of abortion. As a result, evictionism proposes to understand the abortion question in terms of a conflict between the woman and the unwanted fetus over the woman’s body, her exclusive property. Since the woman has absolute private property rights to her body, then under libertarianism she also has an exclusive right to decide who may use it.

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