Abstract
In recent years a number of public health officials have proposed statutes requiring mandatory genetic screening—and, in some cases, eugenic sterilization—to various governmental and legislative bodies. They justify these proposals by citing the need to protect the interests of society and of the as-yet-unconceived person who, if born, would suffer from a serious genetic defect. Perhaps the most articulate spokesman for the latter position is Professor Michael Bayles, who holds that
Given the possiblity of genetic control, society can no longer risk having genetically disadvantaged children by leaving the dicision of whether to have children to the unregulated judgement of individual couples. Some social regulations with respect to genetic screening and, perhaps, eugenic sterilization are needed. While potential parents have interests of privacy and freedom in reproductive decisions, the social interests in preventing the suffering and inequality of possibily defective children may outweigh them in certain types of cases.1
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© 1978 The HUMANA Press Inc.
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Baker, R. (1978). Protecting the Unconceived. In: Davis, J.W., Hoffmaster, B., Shorten, S. (eds) Contemporary Issues in Biomedical Ethics. Contemporary Issues in Biomedical Ethics. Humana Press. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-6239-8_6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-6239-8_6
Publisher Name: Humana Press
Print ISBN: 978-1-4612-6241-1
Online ISBN: 978-1-4612-6239-8
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