Medical Ethics Lectures 8 12 Summary Lecture 8 Self Enhancement What is the difference between enhancing offspring and enhancing oneself parents enhance children by sending them to school training in different sports parent can genetically enhance child for own selfish disposition when enhance child parent is choosing for someone else which is different than choosing for themselves when they enhance themselves make assumptions about who the child might become as opposed to knowing what you would like enhanced what the parents want for the child may be different than what the child wants Are plastic surgery or sports doping ways of seeking unfair advantage or merely of leveling the playing field Foddy and Savulescu arguments to legalize could be regulated could make non health threatening drugs legal consistency caffeine creatine inevitability impossibility of policing naturally occurring advancements natural endowment talent best and most devoted training effort ideal combo of a and b best responsiveness to certain drugs Murray drug race in sports has potential to create slow motion public health catastrophe Best athletes 2 Lecture 9 Cloning Tooley Creating clones to produce a mindless organ banks or b persons Potential problems Mindless organ bank fine to create May be prevented from becoming potential person passive potentiality sperm egg vs active potentiality fertilized egg strongest argument is that it interferes with active potentiality undermines potentiality to become person that deserves respect Tooley counters by saying that would not be wrong to slip switch to stop development Persons cloning not intrinsically wrong but may not be able to do it safely right now may not have right to genetic uniqueness Tooley s world without genetic variation no discrimination right to open future Tooley says knowledge does not constrain just because one clone had particular life does not mean other lives are not open environmental factors may change possibilities disease limitations if clone knew it might get sick or die clone may not try certain activity if knew would fail genetically identical parent knows how to best raise child can develop better development theories same sex and infertile couples can have genetically related children tissue donor for sick sibling a mindless organ banks being killed Passive or active potential to become a person being undermined b Genetic uniqueness or right to an open future threatened see above 3 Lecture 10 Gamete Donation Four ethical issues involved in egg and sperm donation The right to choose the donor Pennings should choose donor that matches partner have child with features that resemble parents secrecy conform to idea of natural family affirms choice of partner child with particular features Arguments against choosing donor tampers with conditional love for child difficult to find donors take what can get commercialism genetic selection discrimination The question of whether gametes should be sold or given Daniels selling is for money giving as gift may be more rewarding promise of pay causes more donations peril of paying donors fewer donations child may feel commodified Should children have a right to know their donor not in the readings many donate anonymously with intention to never have to know meet child right to secrecy parents should not keep info from child if he asks does child have right to now biological parents knowing genetic parent is important vs overrated How many donor offspring should it be permissible to have chance of incest increases may unknowingly meet dibbling and child may not know he is a donated gamete 4 Promise and peril of surrogacy Lecture 11 Surrogacy Promise may empower women and enhance their status Purdy Consequentialist Approach surrogacy is good but not unconditionally some contracts are wrong distinguish between invariable essential consequences and contingent accidental consequences Surrogacy has the potential to empower woemn and increase their status in society because it shines a light on pregnancy which is something people usually take for granted shows it is hard work alleviates infertility distributes burdens and risks undermines traditional notions of family single mother and same sex couples Peril may degrade exploit women especially the poor Baby M Usually don t see rich woman being a surrogate for poor family poor woman is usually surrogate for rich family Know the case I don t feel like typing it AGAIN Transfer of burdens and risks Separation of sex and reproduction reproduction and child rearing 5 Lecture 12 Importance of genetic ties Velleman Predicament of human existence gift of life is the bestowal of an opportunity which however is accompanied by both a threat and a risk genetic bonds between child and parent is important personal need arising from predicament of being born a human being or receiving mixed blessings of human life gift of life is accompanied by both threat and risk threat if child refuses to do work needed to flourish and be happy she will suffer risk if child accepts challenge she might fail genetic parents are responsible for bestowing this gift ad thus responsible for helping child with it those who bring child into world are responsible genetic theft parental obligations are not transferable child s welfare is parent s issue because prospects of living flourishing life decrease if not raised by genetic parents Being human means struggling to form an identity have footsteps to follow people who are like us to help with individual struggles not feel alienated learn to love the faces we look into not feel existentially insecure clearly identifiable location in endless chain of reproduction mother father siblings Growing up with genetically related parents essential for mastering this struggle successfully gamete donation with no intention of rearing child is irresponsible towards child best way of having children may be cloning closer to parents 6