Medical geneticists on PGD for non-medical purposes
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Quoted from Textbook of Human Reproductive Genetics, chapter 13: PGD within the“autonomy model” According to what may be called the “autonomy model,” prospective parents are free to use PGD in order to select embryos on the basis of any characteristic they prefer, whether health related or not. Opponents argue that selecting for non-medical characteristics violates the autonomy of the future child as the child is reduced to an object of parental ambitions and ideals. But would embryo selection on the basis of characteristics that do not limit the possible life plans of the future child or that are useful in carrying out almost any life plan (“general purpose means”) really violate the future child’s autonomy? Should one not say that prospective parents undermine the ethical standard only when they deliberately try to direct the child toward a predetermined life? Anyway, the technical possibilities to use embryo selection for “superbabies,” whatever that may be, are regularly widely exaggerated in the mass media.
Medical geneticists on PGD for non-medical purposes
Medical geneticists on PGD for non-medical…
Medical geneticists on PGD for non-medical purposes
Quoted from Textbook of Human Reproductive Genetics, chapter 13: PGD within the“autonomy model” According to what may be called the “autonomy model,” prospective parents are free to use PGD in order to select embryos on the basis of any characteristic they prefer, whether health related or not. Opponents argue that selecting for non-medical characteristics violates the autonomy of the future child as the child is reduced to an object of parental ambitions and ideals. But would embryo selection on the basis of characteristics that do not limit the possible life plans of the future child or that are useful in carrying out almost any life plan (“general purpose means”) really violate the future child’s autonomy? Should one not say that prospective parents undermine the ethical standard only when they deliberately try to direct the child toward a predetermined life? Anyway, the technical possibilities to use embryo selection for “superbabies,” whatever that may be, are regularly widely exaggerated in the mass media.