Skip to main content

Bioethical Burdens of Proof

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
  • 482 Accesses

Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in Ethics and Public Policy ((PASEPP))

Abstract

Modern and developing forms of selective reproduction have created new procreative choices for prospective parents which pit inclusive social values against personal parental preferences for one’s own child. A liberal eugenic current of thought has become predominant in mainstream bioethics, commending the prenatal selection of one’s children, where possible, over wider social or moral concerns about the nature of the world this creates. This opening chapter accounts for the development of a liberal eugenic orthodoxy, detailing the presumptions of liberty, moral considerability and the parity of genetic and environmental influences that support a permissive procreative liberty.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.

Buying options

Chapter
USD   29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD   44.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD   59.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD   59.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Learn about institutional subscriptions

References

  • Agar, Nicholas. Liberal Eugenics: In Defence of Human Enhancement. Malden, Mass; Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2004.

    Google Scholar 

  • Archard, David. “Genetic Enhancement and Procreative Autonomy.” Studies in Ethics, Law, and Technology 1, no. 1, (2007).

    Google Scholar 

  • Buchanan, Allen E., Dan W. Brock, Norman Daniels, and Daniel Wikler. From Chance to Choice: Genetics and Justice. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 2000.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chief Medical Officers. Abortion Statistics, England & Wales: 2015. edited by Department of Health. https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/570040/Updated_Abortion_Statistics_2015.pdf 2015.

  • Clarke, A. “Is Non-Directive Genetic Counselling Possible?”. Lancet 338, no. 8773 (1991): 998.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dworkin, Ronald. Life’s Dominion: An Argument About Abortion and Euthanasia. London: HarperCollins, 1993.

    Google Scholar 

  • Evans, John, and Cynthia Schairer. “Bioethics and Human Genetic Engineering.” In Handbook of Genetics and Society: Mapping the New Genomic Era, edited by Paul Atkinson, Peter Glaser and Margaret Lock. Oxford: Routledge, 2009.

    Google Scholar 

  • Feinberg, Joel. Freedom and Fulfillment: Philosophical Essays. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1992.

    Google Scholar 

  • Galton, Francis Sir. Inquiries into Human Faculty and Its Development. [S.l.]: J. M. Dent and Co, 1883.

    Google Scholar 

  • Goleniowski, Hayley. Downs Side Up. http://www.downssideup.com/ Accessed 9th March 2017.

  • Habermas, Jurgen. The Future of Human Nature. Cambridge: Polity, 2003.

    Google Scholar 

  • Harris, John. “Sex Selection and Regulated Hatred.” Journal of Medical Ethics 31, no. 5 (May 2005): 291–294.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. Enhancing Evolution: The Ethical Case for Making Better People. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2007.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. The Value of Life. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1985.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. “Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act.” http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1990/37/pdfs/ukpga_19900037_en.pdf 1990.

  • ———. “Sex Selection: Options for Regulation. A Report on the HFEA’s 2002–2003 Review of Sex Selection Including Discussion of Legislative and Regulatory Options.” http://www.hfea.gov.uk/docs/Final_sex_selection_main_report.pdf 2003.

  • Jacob, Jennifer. “(Unexpected) Stories of a Down Syndrome Diagnosis.” http://www.missiont21.com/prenatal. Accessed 9th March 2017.

  • Jones, David Albert. The Soul of the Embryo: An Enquiry into the Status of the Human Embryo in the Christian Tradition. London: Continuum, 2004.

    Google Scholar 

  • Koch, T. “Bioethics as Ideology: Conditional and Unconditional Values.” Journal of Medicine and Philosophy 31, no. 3 (Jun 2006): 251–267.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mill, John Stuart. On Liberty. London: Penguin, 2010.

    Google Scholar 

  • Miller, Barara. “Down Syndrome: Parents Say They Feel Pressure to Terminate Pregnancy after Diagnosis.” ABC News, http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-11-22/down-syndrome-parents-pressured-to-terminate-pregnancy/8033216. Accessed 9th March 2017.

  • Mohr, James Crail. Abortion in America: The Origins and Evolution of National Policy, 1800–1900. New York: Oxford University Press, 1978.

    Google Scholar 

  • Oliver, Kelly. Technologies of Life and Death—from Cloning to Capital Punishment. New York: Fordham University Press, 2013.

    Google Scholar 

  • Prusak, Bernard G. “Rethinking “Liberal Eugenics.” Hastings Center Report 35, no. 6 (2005): 31–42.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rapp, Rayna. Testing Women, Testing the Fetus: The Social Impact of Amniocentesis in America. New York; London: Routledge, 1999.

    Google Scholar 

  • Richards, Clare. A World without Down’s Syndrome? BBC Television, 2016.

    Google Scholar 

  • Robertson, J. A. “Procreative Liberty and the Control of Conception, Pregnancy and Childbirth.” Virginia Law Review 69, no. 3 (1983): 405–464.

    Google Scholar 

  • Robertson, John A. Children of Choice: Freedom and the New Reproductive Technologies. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1994.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rothman, Barbara Katz. The Tentative Pregnancy: How Amniocentesis Changes the Experience of Motherhood. New York: Norton, 1993.

    Google Scholar 

  • Savulescu, J. “Procreative Beneficence: Why We Should Select the Best Children.” Bioethics 15, no. 5–6 (2001): 413–426.

    Google Scholar 

  • Scully, J. L., T. Shakespeare, and S. Banks. “Gift Not Commodity? Lay People Deliberating Social Sex Selection.” Sociology of Health & Illness 28, no. 6 (Sep 2006): 749–767.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shakespeare, Tom. “Choices and Rights: Eugenics, Genetics and Disability Equality.” Disability & Society 13, no. 5 (1998): 665–681.

    Google Scholar 

  • Singer, Peter. Rethinking Life & Death: The Collapse of Our Traditional Ethics. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995.

    Google Scholar 

  • Singer, Peter, and Helga Kuhse. Unsanctifying Human Life: Essays on Ethics. Oxford: Blackwell, 2002.

    Google Scholar 

  • Solomon, Andrew author. Far from the Tree: A Dozen Kinds of Love. New York: Simon and Schuster, 2012.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stewart, Rory. “What is the opium of the people?” Intelligent Life, November/December 2013.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wilkinson, Stephen. Choosing Tomorrow’s Children: The Ethics of Selective Reproduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wolfenden, John Frederick Sir. Report of the Committee on Homosexual Offences and Prostitution. [S.l.]: H.M.S.O., 1957.

    Google Scholar 

  • Woodhead, Linda, and Norman Winter, eds. Religion and Personal Life. London: Darton, Longman and Todd, 2013.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Simon Reader .

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2017 The Author(s)

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Reader, S. (2017). Bioethical Burdens of Proof. In: The Ethics of Choosing Children. Palgrave Studies in Ethics and Public Policy. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-59864-2_1

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics