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Moral Issues in Human Genetics: Counseling or Control?
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 May 2010
Extract
… [T]he question “valuable to what end?” is one of extraordinary complexity. For example, something obviously valuable in terms of the longest possible survival of a race (or of its best adaptation to a given climate, or of the preservation of its greatest numbers) would by no means have the same value if it were a question of developing a more powerful type. The welfare of the many and the welfare of the few are radically opposite ends.
There is no question that genetic engineering in many forms… will come about. It is a general rule that whatever is scientifically feasible will be attempted. The application of these technics must, however, be examined from the point of view of ethics, individual freedom and coercion. Both the scientists directly involved and, perhaps more important, the political and social leaders of our civilization must exercise utmost caution in order to prevent genetic, evolutionary and social tragedies.
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- Information
- Dialogue: Canadian Philosophical Review / Revue canadienne de philosophie , Volume 16 , Issue 3 , September 1977 , pp. 375 - 396
- Copyright
- Copyright © Canadian Philosophical Association 1977
References
* Friedrich Nietzsche, The Genealogy of Morals.
* Hirschhorn, Kurt, M.D., “Practical and Ethical Problems in Human Genetics,” Birth Defects, Vol. VIII, No. 4 (July, 1972), pp. 29–30.Google Scholar
1 Powledge, Tabitha, “Genetic Screening,” Encycíopedia of Bioethics (in press)Google Scholar.
2 Ibid.
3 Ibid.
4 Powledge, , “The XYY Man; Do Criminals Really Have Abnormal Genes?” Science Digest, January, 1976, p. 37Google Scholar.
5 Powledge, “Genetic Screening,” op. cit.
6 A view similar to this is argued by Marc Lappé, “The Genetic Counselor: Responsible to Whom?” The Hastings Center Report, No. 2, September 1971Google Scholar.
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8 Robert F. Murray, Jr.,Ibid., p. 120.
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11 Ibid.
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25 Ibid., p.27.