PHLB07H3 Lecture Notes - Lecture 22: Reproductive Rights, On Liberty, Liberal Eugenics
Document Summary
Week 12 lecture #21: wednesday march 22, 2017. Part i: three arguments for enhancement: choosing not to enhance is choosing against our children"s best interests, genetic interventions are, intrinsically, no different than environmental interventions, genetic enhancement is, intrinsically, no different morally than treating disease. Julian savulescu: choosing not to enhance wrongs children. By choosing not to enhance one"s child, you wrong the child by choosing a future that is worse for him. An argument by small steps (savulescu 445: nothing special about genetic interventions. Is there a difference between environmental and genetic interventions: in general, we accept environmental interventions education, diet, and training to make our children better behaved, more cooperative, and more intelligent. In doing so, we are trying to improve our children and increase their opportunities in life: these environmental manipulations work by altering our biology. Objection: perhaps genetic manipulations are more objectionable because they are irreversible: savulescu: no. Many environmental interventions are (nearly) irreversible as well.
