BookInmaculada de Melo-Martín.
Summary: Reprogenetic technologies, which combine the power of reproductive techniques with the tools of genetic science and technology, promise prospective parents a remarkable degree of control to pick and choose the likely characteristics of their offspring. Not only can they select embryos with or without particular genetically-related diseases and disabilities but also choose embryos with non-disease related traits such as sex. Prominent authors such as Agar, Buchanan, DeGrazia, Green, Harris, Robertson, Savulescu, and Silver have flocked to the banner of reprogenetics. For them, increased reproductive choice and reduced suffering through the elimination of genetic disease and disability are just the first step. They advocate use of these technologies to create beings who enjoy longer and healthier lives, possess greater intellectual capacities, and are capable of more refined emotional experiences. Indeed, Harris and Savulescu in particular take reprogenetic technologies to be so valuable to human beings that they have insisted that their use is not only morally permissible but morally required. Rethinking Reprogenetics challenges this mainstream view with a contextualised, gender-attentive philosophical perspective. De Melo-Martín demonstrates that you do not have to be a Luddite, social conservative, or religious zealot to resist the siren song of reprogenetics. Pointing out the flawed nature of the arguments put forward by the technologies' proponents, Rethinking Reprogenetics reveals the problematic nature of the assumptions underpinning current evaluations of these technologies and offers a framework for a more critical and sceptical assessment. -- Provided by publisher.
Contents:
Introduction : challenging mainstream defenses of reprogenetic technologies
Reprogenetic technologies : an overview
Procreative liberty : the moral permissibility of reprogenetics
Conscripted in the pursuit of perfection : the moral obligation to use reprogenetic technologies
The illusion of control : reprogenetic technologies and the natural lottery
Not of woman born : reprogenetics and the erasing of women
Different things delight different people : on the value-neutrality of reprogenetic technologies
Enhancing the assessment of reprogenetic technologies : the case of mitochondrial replacement.