Description:
Pre-implantation Genetic Diagnosis (PGD) allows parents to choose between embryos they have created via IVF on the basis of information about their genetics. It is currently widely used to prevent the birth of children with serious genetic conditions such as cystic fibrosis or Tay–Sachs disease. However, PGD might also be used to achieve “human enhancement” through the deliberate selection of genes for “above species-typical” traits. A number of influential philosophers and bioethicists have therefore recently begun arguing that parents should use PGD to have the “best child possible”. This presentation will explore the ethics of pre-implantation genetic diagnosis in the light of the “disability critique” of prenatal testing and the argument for “human enhancement”. By means of a linked set of hypothetical cases, I will demonstrate how popular and intuitive accounts of the ethics of PGD lead to unexpected and problematic conclusions. I will suggest that there is currently no account of the ethics of PGD that does not struggle to account for important intuitions in one or more cases.

Speaker(s):
Associate Professor Robert Sparrow, Australian Research Council Future Fellow, School of Philosophical, Historical and International Studies, Adjunct Associate Professor, Centre for Human Bioethics, Monash University, Australia

Rob Sparrow is an Australian Research Council Future Fellow in the Philosophy Program, and an adjunct Associate Professor in the Centre for Human Bioethics, at Monash University, where he works on ethical issues raised by new technologies. His current research interests include the ethics of pre-implantation genetic diagnosis, technologies of human enhancement, artificial gametes, and the ethics of robotics. 

PowerPoint Slides:
Click here