scholarly journals Enhancing Autonomy, Authenticity And Selecting The Child With The Best Moral Life

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 423-454
Author(s):  
Alexandru Gabriel Cioiu
Keyword(s):  
Assisted Reproductive Technologies ◽  
Human Enhancement ◽  
Reproductive Technologies ◽  
Moral Life ◽  
Genetic Enhancement ◽  
Easy Access ◽  
Moral Agents ◽  
Biomedical Enhancement ◽  
Societal Norms ◽  
Biomedical Technologies

In the human enhancement literature, there is a recurrent fear that biomedical technologies will negatively impact the autonomy and authenticity of moral agents, even when the agents would end up having better capacities and an improved life with the aid of these technologies. I will explore several ways in which biomedical enhancement may improve the autonomy of moral agents and try to show that biomedical methods are, all things considered, beneficial to our autonomy and authenticity. I will argue that there are instances when it’s desirable to limit the autonomy of moral agents and that strict regulations are to be put in place if a great number of people will have easy access to powerful, genetic-altering technologies which can impact the life of future children. I will advocate for using assisted reproductive technologies in order to select the child with the best chance of the best moral life and in doing so I will analyse several procreative principles which have been proposed by different scholars in the genetic enhancement debate and try to determine which one would be best to adhere to. Usually, people place high value on the concept of autonomy and there are many cases in which they end up overestimating autonomy in relation to other moral values. While autonomy is important, it’s also important to know how to limit it when reasonable societal norms require it. Sometimes autonomy is defined in strong connection with the concept of authenticity, in the sense that it’s not sufficient for our choices to be autonomous if they are not also authentic. I will try to defend the idea that authenticity can be enhanced as well with the aid of enhancement technologies which can actually prove beneficial in our quest to improve our own self.

scholarly journals Human enhancement

2019 ◽  
Vol 2019 (1) ◽  
pp. 183-189 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mara Almeida ◽  
Rui Diogo
Keyword(s):  
Natural Environment ◽  
Evolutionary Biology ◽  
Human Enhancement ◽  
Genetic Enhancement ◽  
Human Biology ◽  
Human Populations ◽  
Genetic Intervention ◽  
Biomedical Enhancement ◽  
Open Questions ◽  
Evolutionary Context

Abstract Genetic engineering opens new possibilities for biomedical enhancement requiring ethical, societal and practical considerations to evaluate its implications for human biology, human evolution and our natural environment. In this Commentary, we consider human enhancement, and in particular, we explore genetic enhancement in an evolutionary context. In summarizing key open questions, we highlight the importance of acknowledging multiple effects (pleiotropy) and complex epigenetic interactions among genotype, phenotype and ecology, and the need to consider the unit of impact not only to the human body but also to human populations and their natural environment (systems biology). We also propose that a practicable distinction between ‘therapy’ and ‘enhancement’ may need to be drawn and effectively implemented in future regulations. Overall, we suggest that it is essential for ethical, philosophical and policy discussions on human enhancement to consider the empirical evidence provided by evolutionary biology, developmental biology and other disciplines. Lay Summary: This Commentary explores genetic enhancement in an evolutionary context. We highlight the multiple effects associated with germline heritable genetic intervention, the need to consider the unit of impact to human populations and their natural environment, and propose that a practicable distinction between ‘therapy’ and ‘enhancement’ is needed.

7. Reproduction

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan Herring
Keyword(s):  
Assisted Reproduction ◽  
Assisted Reproductive Technologies ◽  
Reproductive Technologies ◽  
The State ◽  
Genetic Enhancement ◽  
Gamete Donation ◽  
Reproductive Autonomy ◽  
Ethical Aspects ◽  
Human Fertilisation

This chapter examines legal and ethical aspects of assisted reproduction. Topics discussed include infertility; the concept of reproductive autonomy; criticisms of assisted reproduction; regulation of assisted reproductive technologies; criticisms of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 1990; gamete donation; surrogacy; cloning; and genetic enhancement and eugenics. The chapter explores the extent to which the state should regulate decisions around reproduction or whether they should be left to the decision of the individuals concerned. Some people believe that the interests of children to be born should be taken into account, although there is extensive debates over how this should be done.

Comparative Biomedical Policy: Governing Assisted Reproductive Technologies

2005 ◽  
Vol 38 (2) ◽  
pp. 507-509
Author(s):  
Michael A. O'Neill
Keyword(s):  
Science Fiction ◽  
Assisted Reproductive Technologies ◽  
Building Blocks ◽  
Reproductive Technologies ◽  
Public Authorities ◽  
Vitro Fertilization ◽  
Societal Norms ◽  
Playing God ◽  
Positive Elements

Comparative Biomedical Policy: Governing Assisted Reproductive Technologies, Ivor Bleiklei, Malcolm L. Goggin and Christine Rothmayr, eds., London: Routledge, 2004, pp. 284.Few issues have the potential to combine elements of science fact and science fiction as does the field of biomedical research and its offshoot, assisted reproductive technologies (ART). As newspapers testify with regularity, this area of science and medicine uniquely combines promises for the improvement of human health but also exemplifies the dangers associated with scientists playing god with the very the building blocks of our species. Confronted with these stark opposites, public authorities have entered the fray and have tried, with varied responses, to frame these practices in such as way as to encourage and stimulate the positive elements of this area of research and medicine, such as in vitro fertilization, while cutting off or severely circumscribing the areas which have been deemed immoral or unethical, such as human cloning. It is where issues of morality or ethics enter the policy discourse that the waters get murky and where, as a result, governments find the arbitration between first-person experiences and societal norms the most difficult.

8. Reproduction

2020 ◽  
pp. 412-471
Author(s):  
Jonathan Herring
Keyword(s):  
Assisted Reproduction ◽  
Assisted Reproductive Technologies ◽  
Reproductive Technologies ◽  
The State ◽  
Genetic Enhancement ◽  
Gamete Donation ◽  
Reproductive Autonomy ◽  
Ethical Aspects ◽  
Human Fertilisation

This chapter examines legal and ethical aspects of assisted reproduction. Topics discussed include infertility; the concept of reproductive autonomy; criticisms of assisted reproduction; regulation of assisted reproductive technologies; criticisms of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 1990; gamete donation; surrogacy; cloning; and genetic enhancement and eugenics. The chapter explores the extent to which the state should regulate decisions around reproduction or whether they should be left to the decision of the individuals concerned. Some people believe that the interests of children to be born should be taken into account, although there is extensive debates over how this should be done.

scholarly journals The Ethics of Pre-Implantation Genetic Diagnosis in Practice: An Analysis of the Feasibility and Ethical Considerations of Applying and Regulating Genetic Enhancement

2013 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 14
Author(s):  
Helena Bleeker
Keyword(s):  
Genetic Diagnosis ◽  
Human Enhancement ◽  
Genetic Enhancement ◽  
Genetic Therapy ◽  
Ethical Considerations ◽  
Moral Agents ◽  
Medical Therapies

<span>Pre-Implantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) has many therapeutic and enhancement ap- plications. In a previous work, I presented arguments in favour of all types of PGD, whether for medical therapies or human enhancement. These arguments were based on the absence of moral distinctions between genetic therapy and genetic enhancement. The implication of these arguments is that, if one cannot distinguish between therapy and enhancement on moral grounds, then all PGD applications must be either moral or immoral. Although logically speaking this argument may be true, in practice I believe that it is possible and necessary to draw a line between what is morally permissible and what is not with respect to applications of PGD for genetic enhancement. In order to draw this line, I move away from analyzing the moral substance of PGD as a technology and focus instead on the moral agents that will employ PGD. As humans, I believe we are both morally accountable and mora</span>

Re-imagining Reproduction: Unsettling Metaphors in the History of Imperial Science and Commercial Surrogacy in India

Somatechnics ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 88-103 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kalindi Vora
Keyword(s):  
Assisted Reproductive Technologies ◽  
Reproductive Technologies ◽  
The Body ◽  
Body Parts ◽  
Colonial History ◽  
Women's Bodies ◽  
Commercial Surrogacy ◽  
Art Practices ◽  
History Of ◽  
Travel Industry

This paper provides an analysis of how cultural notions of the body and kinship conveyed through Western medical technologies and practices in Assisted Reproductive Technologies (ART) bring together India's colonial history and its economic development through outsourcing, globalisation and instrumentalised notions of the reproductive body in transnational commercial surrogacy. Essential to this industry is the concept of the disembodied uterus that has arisen in scientific and medical practice, which allows for the logic of the ‘gestational carrier’ as a functional role in ART practices, and therefore in transnational medical fertility travel to India. Highlighting the instrumentalisation of the uterus as an alienable component of a body and subject – and therefore of women's bodies in surrogacy – helps elucidate some of the material and political stakes that accompany the growth of the fertility travel industry in India, where histories of privilege and difference converge. I conclude that the metaphors we use to structure our understanding of bodies and body parts impact how we imagine appropriate roles for people and their bodies in ways that are still deeply entangled with imperial histories of science, and these histories shape the contemporary disparities found in access to medical and legal protections among participants in transnational surrogacy arrangements.

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