Do you want leather or cloth seats,” asks the car salesperson. “Do you want your baby to have brown or blue eyes,” asks the doctor. Genetic engineering has reached a point where, much like choosing a feature on a car before buying it, we can select the features of our baby before its birth. Features like height, eye color, hair color, intelligence, likelihood of illness, and more can be or likely will be able to be selected in the near future. The question is, is it morally permissible to do so?
Discuss the moral implications of genetically engineering human babies. Respond to one of the following:
Does it cheapen and commodify human life when we select the features of a human person like we do when purchasing a car? Based on the core principles of either virtue ethics, Kantian ethics, or utilitarianism, explain why or why not. Is it morally different to use genetic engineering to lower the likelihood of illness such as diabetes, as opposed to using it to select an aesthetic feature such as eye color? Based on the core principles of either virtue ethics, Kantian ethics, or utilitarianism, explain why or why not. (USLOs 8.1, 8.2, 8.3)
Assuming genetic engineering remains expensive and only the wealthy can afford to engineer their children with more desirable features, such as greater intelligence and a lower likelihood of illness, is it morally permissible to allow genetic engineering? Based on the core principles of either virtue ethics, Kantian ethics, or utilitarianism, explain why or why not. Is it morally different to use genetic engineering to lower the likelihood of illness as opposed to using it to select increased intelligence? Based on the core principles of either virtue ethics, Kantian ethics, or utilitarianism, explain why or why not.
