Tonight’s Topics
Exam Post Mortem
Term paper outlines
Eugenics and Genetic Research
Eugenics and Genetic
Research
Human Genome Project
Genetic Screening and Counseling
Gene Therapy
Eugenics
Human Genome Project
Goal: Map and sequence all 100,000
human genes
Genetic markers identified for many
diseases
Genetic markers give rise to DNA tests
and screening
Ethical Issues Raised by the
Genome Project
Screening for predispositions
Screening of workers
Screening and counseling for marriage
and childbirth
Informing children
The end of insurance
Genetic Screening and
Counseling
2,000 diseases have genetic factors
Tests are available for many
devastating diseases
Many obey strict Mendelian
transmission laws (eugenics)
Prenatal diagnosis is possible for many
defects
Selective abortion
Prenatal diagnosis is possible
for many defects
Tay-Sachs, XYY, Down Syndrome,
Neural Tube Defects
Tests carry risks of miscarriage and
injury to fetus
Ethical Issues in Screening
and Counseling
Is there a right to have an impaired
child?
Is society justified in requiring
screening?
Must parents be informed of tests that
are available?
Are patients (parents) entitled to know
test results?
Gene Therapy
Goal: Use recombinant DNA
technology to eliminate or correct
genetic defects
Dramatic progress in technology
Distinguish somatic cell therapy from
germ line therapy
Eugenics
Goal: To improve the genome through
either the encouragement of favorable
genes (positive eugenics) or reducing
the number of undesirable genes
(negative eugenics).
The idea of eugenics has a long history,
and has surfaced repeatedly in the 20th
century
Ethical Issues Associated with
Eugenics
Negative eugenics has little impact
(most defects are recessive)
Positive eugenics holds little promise
(we don’t understand the science)
We don’t agree about what is desirable
and undesirable on a large scale
Review of the Readings
Hubbard and Lewontin on Pitfalls of
Genetic testing
Purdy on the immorality of some
parenting
Kass on the ethical problems with
prenatal screening
Davis on germ-line therapy
Hubbard and Lewontin on
Pitfalls of Genetic testing
Genetic testing causes more harm than
good
Risks are statistical—not well
understood and other causes intervene
Tests without treatments only cause
anxiety
Purdy: Can Having Children
be Immoral?
Sometimes it is immoral to have
children.
Duty to provide each child with a normal
opportunity for a good life.
No harm follows from being prevented
from existing
Duty to provide normal opportunity
outweighs parental right to reproduce
Purdy: Can Having Children
be Immoral?
Sometimes it is immoral to have
children.
So, some parents should be prevented
from reproducing
Kass on the Implications of
Prenatal Screening
Genetic abortion renders all persons
with disabilities second class citizens.
Recall Baby Doe.
We should not reduce people to their
afflictions lest we embrace the view that
“defectives should not be born.”
None of the standards used to justify
genetic abortion work.
Arguments Supporting
Genetic Abortion
Societal good.
Social Worthiness.
Familial good (parental good).
A healthy and sound child
Munson and Davis on Germ-
Line Therapy
Germ-line therapy holds tremendous
promise, yet people oppose it
The arguments against germ-line
therapy don’t work
The therapeutic imperative of medicine
says we cannot abandon this line of
research.
Arguments Against Germ-Line
Therapy
Violates the right to an unaltered
genome
Produces conflicts between individual
rights and societal goods
Amounts to playing God