{"title":"“Good Parents” Can Promote Their Own and Their Children’s Flourishing","authors":"J. Johnston","doi":"10.1093/OSO/9780190940362.003.0009","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/OSO/9780190940362.003.0009","url":null,"abstract":"Advances in genetic technology, including new methods for gene editing, promise to provide parents and prospective parents with more information about and more control over the genetic make-up of their children. Information and control are both highly prized in our culture, and both could offer substantial benefits to parents and children. Yet offers of information and control that promise to benefit children can quickly generate new parental responsibilities, morphing from opportunities to obligations and raising the question whether refusing to use the technologies might one day be considered inconsistent with being a “good parent.” This chapter explores the idea of the good parent and argues that understandings of the good parent must evolve to take parents’ own flourishing into account. Only with this richer understanding of the nature and responsibilities of parenting can we adopt technologies such as gene editing in ways that benefit both parents and children.","PeriodicalId":155818,"journal":{"name":"Human Flourishing in an Age of Gene Editing","volume":"64 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"114496079","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Politics of Intrinsic Worth","authors":"G. Bennett","doi":"10.1093/OSO/9780190940362.003.0017","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/OSO/9780190940362.003.0017","url":null,"abstract":"Talk of “protecting human dignity” has become a fixture of modern counterpolitics. Indeed, it has become so widespread, some in bioethics have suggested the term now means too little by being made to do too much. This chapter argues that however philosophically “thin” it has become, bioethics still needs talk of dignity. It proposes that the power of the concept lies less in clear philosophical definitions and more in how notions of intrinsic worth evoked by human dignity offer a language for critiquing the sometimes-violent ways science and technology have been used to “normalize” human life. Working historically, the chapter concludes that giving up on dignity would mean giving up a key resource for asking not only what we might gain in transforming ourselves with new biotechnologies, but also whether there is something inviolably precious we might lose.","PeriodicalId":155818,"journal":{"name":"Human Flourishing in an Age of Gene Editing","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"130649377","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Creaturehood and Deification as Anchors for an Ethics of Gene Editing","authors":"M. Burdett","doi":"10.1093/OSO/9780190940362.003.0013","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/OSO/9780190940362.003.0013","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter considers what it means to be human in an era of gene editing technologies, using ideas from philosophical and religious scholarship. I call these ideas “visions of the human being.” These visions are central to understanding the relationship between gene editing and human flourishing because they are “at work” in the definition of human flourishing, and they shape people’s responses to the technologies. Proposed is a postsecular, Christian vision of the human being and flourishing in the context of gene editing as the successful navigation between two elements of human existence: “creaturehood” and “deification.” Both elements are important for developing a robust conception of human flourishing and for allowing us to respond well to the uses of gene editing applications.","PeriodicalId":155818,"journal":{"name":"Human Flourishing in an Age of Gene Editing","volume":"26 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"131013568","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Introduction to Human Flourishing in an Age of Gene Editing","authors":"E. Parens, J. Johnston","doi":"10.1093/OSO/9780190940362.003.0001","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/OSO/9780190940362.003.0001","url":null,"abstract":"In 2015, in the journal Science, a highly regarded group of scientists, science policy experts, and ethicists called for a public conversation about the ethical questions raised by a new technology that could be used to alter the genomes of human beings.1 Among these ethical questions were ones regarding safety. Most simply, could the new technology be deployed without posing an unreasonable risk of causing physical harms? The authors of the commentary in ...","PeriodicalId":155818,"journal":{"name":"Human Flourishing in an Age of Gene Editing","volume":"26 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"133302311","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Do More Choices Lead to More Flourishing?","authors":"S. Iyengar, Tucker Kuman","doi":"10.1093/OSO/9780190940362.003.0008","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/OSO/9780190940362.003.0008","url":null,"abstract":"Innovations in gene editing technology promise to increase the number of choices involved in the creation of future persons. The provision of more choices is commonly perceived as a boon to the individual chooser’s agency and ultimate satisfaction, but decades of work by social psychologists have lent more complexity to this picture, illustrating the ways in which the quality of our decision-making is susceptible to numerous forms of biases, errors, and complications that arise when our choice set is framed in a particular way or significantly expanded. A consideration of these potential consequences can help us better appreciate the stakes of gaining more choices in this highly unique context, suggesting that under certain circumstances more is sometimes less.","PeriodicalId":155818,"journal":{"name":"Human Flourishing in an Age of Gene Editing","volume":"28 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"130540274","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Daoism, Flourishing, and Gene Editing","authors":"Richard Kim","doi":"10.1093/OSO/9780190940362.003.0006","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/OSO/9780190940362.003.0006","url":null,"abstract":"Given the potentially powerful effects of gene editing for human lives, it seems reasonable to reflect on the issue from a variety of scientific, moral, cultural, and religious perspectives to help us deploy this technology with a clear eye to all its possible implications. Given the global impact genetic modification will likely have, an inquiry seriously engaging with the values and ideals of non-Western cultures and societies will be helpful to achieve the sort of balanced understanding that will enable a proper evaluation. This chapter examines the account of well-being found in the Daoist classic, the Zhuangzi, and highlights some insights that can be fruitfully explored in the context of the ethics of gene editing. The thesis is that, from the perspective of Zhuangzi’s conception of human flourishing, there are reasons for rejecting the use of genetic modification technology.","PeriodicalId":155818,"journal":{"name":"Human Flourishing in an Age of Gene Editing","volume":"213 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-08-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"131402110","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Choice, Chance, and Acceptance","authors":"J. Scully","doi":"10.1093/oso/9780190940362.003.0011","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190940362.003.0011","url":null,"abstract":"Current genetic intervention against disease and disability relies on prenatal genetic testing and the option of termination or on the expensive and demanding process of preimplantation genetic diagnosis. By contrast, gene editing promises to increase reproductive choice through therapeutic and restorative interventions that avoid the ethical issues of abortion or selection. Eventually, gene editing could effectively eradicate disability-linked genetic anomalies from the human genome. If it becomes possible to eradicate genetically influenced disability, would anything be lost, and if so, a loss to whom or to what? This chapter considers the ethics of the control over biology offered by gene editing and the exercise of choice using that control in parental reproductive decisions. The discussion examines empirical data on the views of the UK public that offer an alternative perspective for bioethical thinking about reproductive autonomy, the exercise of choice, and the nature of good parenthood.","PeriodicalId":155818,"journal":{"name":"Human Flourishing in an Age of Gene Editing","volume":"12 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1900-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"127458641","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Unraveling the Human Tapestry","authors":"R. Sparrow","doi":"10.1093/OSO/9780190940362.003.0012","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/OSO/9780190940362.003.0012","url":null,"abstract":"If parents are choosing their children’s genes, there is a chance that they will all try to have healthy, long-lived, handsome, and intelligent children. While many have advertised a world of “perfect babies” as a utopia, to some critics the loss of diversity involved would be a disaster. This chapter distinguishes between different sorts of diversity, different putative beneficiaries of the existence of diversity, and different reasons for believing diversity to be valuable. Sparrow argues that the threat posed to valuable kinds of diversity by gene editing is less than critics often fear. He suggests that, where gene editing does pose a plausible threat to a valuable kind of diversity, it might be reasonable to limit the use of gene editing as long as conserving or securing diversity does not require sacrificing the welfare of any individual too much.","PeriodicalId":155818,"journal":{"name":"Human Flourishing in an Age of Gene Editing","volume":"43 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1900-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"132581568","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}