Abortion, marriage and cognate problems

In Liberalism with Excellence, Matthew Kramer argues that liberal neutrality cannot adjudicate issues such as abortion, and he intimates that this problem extends to ‘cognate problems’ such as euthanasia, animal rights and (more unexpectedly) same-sex marriage. In this Article, I examine the sense in which marriage is a cognate problem to abortion. I suggest that liberal neutrality is indeterminate, not only about the identification of rights-bearing natural persons, but also about the identification of justice-apt social practices. I argue that the resolution of many political-moral controversies depend on contested social ontologies – claims about the nature and moral status of the particular groups and relationships that individuals form – and I illustrate this claim by reference to the rights of religious association.