A cake is a metaphor for a heterogeneous, divisible good, such as land. A perfect division of cake is efficient (also called Pareto-optimal), envyfree, and equitable. We give an example of a cake in which it is impossible to divide it among three players such that these three properties are satisfied, however many cuts are made. It turns out that two of the three properties can be satisfied by ...

John Harris argues that “it may be morally wrong to ‘choose’ to bring to birth an individual with any impairment, however slight, if a healthy individual could be brought to birth instead. ” 1 This is a strong and controversial statement but one that, at least initially, seems to fi t with many people’s intuitions about what sort of children to have, given the choice. It taps into our shared de...