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Anna-Karin Andersson was born in Norrköping, Sweden, 1978, and educated at Linköping University. Master degree in practical philosophy, including Master of Applied Ethics 2002. Employed as a Ph.D student 2002.

Research project

I write a thesis on moral rights in general and the moral rights of foetuses and children with regard to their parents in particular. The thesis begins with a discussion of an argument formulated by Alan Gewirth for positive and negative rights, followed by a discussion of two possible interpretations of the basic normative outlook of the thesis, which is libertarianism as defended by Robert Nozick in Anarchy, State, and Utopia.

Thereafter, I specify the term "negative rights" through a discussion of the distinction between active and passive behaviour. Thereafter, the main argument of the thesis is spelled out: I discuss four different, rights-based answers to the question whether parents are morally obligated to abstain from abortion and infanticide, and whether parents are morally obligated to support their child with means necessary in order for the child to develop full autonomous agency. The novel features of the thesis are my attempts to argue that an advocate of the rights-theory defended in the thesis can consistently claim that potentially for autonomous agency is of moral importance, and that one may, in order to avoid violating negative rights, need to support one's child actively.