Dynamic Aspects of Human Genetics: Is the Human Germline the Bioethical Key to Human Genetic Engineering?

Abstract

on more difficult or controversial terrain such as: nonperson-affecting principle justifications that claim that the wrongfulness of the reproduction stems from the failure to substitute a child who would experience less suffering or more opportunity (with additional complications for different number cases); reproductive externalities focused on harm to third-parties by the existence of a particular child; a conception of wronging absent harm or a related alternative conception of harm where the fact that an individual is overall benefited is insufficient to save the act from being wrongful; or legal moralist or virtue ethics analysis about certain kinds of reproductive behaviors separate from their consequences for the offspring (Cohen 2011, 2012b). None of these are easy for academics to explain or defend, let alone for policymakers in this area, hence the continued allure of person-affecting arguments.