ATS1263 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Sorites Paradox, Eubulides, Recap (Software)
8 May 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
ATS1263
Bioethics
Lecture 4: Abortion and Controversy
•LECTURE 3 RECAP
Genetic Tests
•The main immediate fruit of the HGP
•We can test for genetic traits and conditions
•Used for:
•Diagnosis and/or confirmation of diseases, indicating need for treatment or
intervention
•Inform life planning
•Reproductive decision making
•Prenatal Diagnosis and Selective Abortion
•Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis (PGD)
•Birth Control
•Prenatal Diagnosis and Selective Abortion:
•Imagine an extreme scenario:
•A genetic test indicated 100% likelihood that pregnancy will result in severe mental and
physical disability and short life full of severe suffering (e.g Tay Sachs, Lesh-Nyhan)
•Is it appropriate in this context for parents to have the test and then have an abortion?
Motivation for abortion:
•Prevention of suffering
•Parents concern for own lives
•Concern for other family members
•Aim to avoid burden on society
•Aim to conceive again and have another child with a higher quality of life
•There are genetic tests that do not involve abortion
•PGD (Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis)
-Refers to genetic profiling/selection of embryos prior to implantation via IVF.
-As in the case with abortion, in IVF there are deaths of embryos that are selected
against
-But…it is less widely believed that embryos have the same amount of moral
status as a child does
•Eugenics (broad definition):
•The employment of an understanding of heredity in the exertion of control over
who gets born or reproduces, with the aim to improve the quality of human lives.
•Using this definition, is reproductive decision making a form of eugenics?
•Some people may contest that eugenics is acting to improve the human gene pool,
whereas parents are only looking to make sure their child has a high quality of life,
rather than enhancing the entire gene pool. Therefore, reproductive decision making
is not a form of eugenics.
•This raises the question: what is the right definition of eugenics?
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Document Summary
Lecture 4: abortion and controversy: lecture 3 recap. Refers to genetic pro ling/selection of embryos prior to implantation via ivf. As in the case with abortion, in ivf there are deaths of embryos that are selected against. Returning to abortion : almost everyone agrees that abortion is morally problematic, and that it is not a non- trivial thing to do. (this does not mean that it is wrong. , so: Why: when you think of these spectra, one reaction you might have is that thinking about things in either or" terms is the wrong way to be thinking about things ethically, because they come in all different degrees. Which of the following would be morally acceptable to kill: sperm/eggs/ova, embryos, early stage foetuses, late stage foetuses, newborns, all of the above, none of the above. The sorites paradox, or the paradox of the heap is an ancient greek puzzle posed by a pupil of euclid named eubulides.
