Kain on Kant on Human Moral Status

In light of our recent conversation about Christianity's debt to Kant, we might find helpful Purdue philosophy prof Patrick Kain's recent paper, Kant's Defense of Human Moral Status.  Here's a summary:

The determination of individual moral status is a central factor in the ethical evaluation of controversial practices such as elective abortion, human embryo-destructive research, and the care of the severely disabled and those in persistent vegetative states. A review of recent work on Kant reveals the need for a careful examination of the content of Kant’s biological and psychological theories and their relation to his views about moral status. Such an examination, in conjunction with Kant’s practical-metaphysical analysis of the origins of freedom, reveals Kant’s principled basis for his contention that all human beings possess moral status.