Human Genetic Selection and Enhancement

The book analyses moral and legal problems of assisted reproduction providing a pluralistic approach which combines principles of procreative beneficence, procreative nonmaleficence, reproductive autonomy and rationality with the meaning and nature of the parent-child relationship as the main criterion of moral assessment.

Among all human practices, procreation seems the most paradoxical. It starts as a fully personal choice and ends with the creation of a new subject of rights and responsibilities. Advances in reproductive genetics pose new ethical and legal questions. They are expected to prevent the transmission of genetic diseases to progeny and also to improve genetically-endowed mental and physical attributes. Genetic selection and enhancement may affect a child's identity, as well as the parent-child relationship. The authors are committed to a pluralistic approach that captures all aspects of this relationship in terms of moral virtues and principles. They elucidate that most of the conflicts between parental preferences and a child's rights could be resolved with reference to the meaning and nature of procreation.

Autorentext

Marta Soniewicka holds a PhD in Law and in Philosophy. She is Assistant Professor at the Department of Philosophy of Law and Legal Ethics at the Faculty of Law and Administration of the Jagiellonian University in Krakow (Poland). Her research interests concentrate on the philosophy of law, political philosophy, and ethics. She has authored and co-authored numerous articles, chapters and books. Wojciech Lewandowski holds an MA and PhD in Philosophy. He is Assistant Professor at the Department of Applied Ethics at the Faculty of Philosophy of the John Paul II Catholic University in Lublin (Poland). His fields of interest include the justification of special obligations, especially parental responsibility and collective responsibility for future generations. His recent publications include a monograph and various papers.

Inhalt

Ethical standards of genetic counselling and reproductive autonomy - The criteria of rationality in genetic selection - Sex as a criterion for progeny selection - Reproductive harm - Selective procreation and disability - Parent-God analogy in procreative decisions - Spare embryos and parental obligations - Human enhancement and the question of justice - The question of human self-understanding in the debate over moral human enhancement: reasoning, autonomy, intentionality and authenticity - Genetic improvement and moral perfection - Bio-conservatism and the preference for status-quo - Procreative autonomy in the context of person-affecting and impersonal reasons for human enhancement - Intrinsic and instrumental values in the assessment of human enhancement