Creation ethics: reproduction, genetics, and quality of life

Abstract

The ethics of creating human beings has been addressed in several contexts: debates over abortion and embryo research; literature on ‘self-creation’ and discussions of procreative rights and responsibilities, genetic engineering and future generations. This book is a sustained, scholarly analysis of all of these issues—a discussion that attempts to combine breadth of topics with philosophical depth, imagination with current scientific understanding and argumentative rigour with accessibility. The overarching aim of Creation Ethics is to illuminate a broad array of issues connected with reproduction and genetics through the lens of moral philosophy.1 Chapter 1 introduces the concept of creation and the various ways in which human beings create, or someday will create, humans beings and particular types of human beings. It also clarifies how the book differs from existing literature and provides an overview of the other chapters. Chapter 2 addresses the moral status of the prenatal human being and the attendant ethical issues of abortion and embryo research. DeGrazia first defends a tripartite framework for understanding prenatal moral status: a biological view of our essence, a view of when we come into existence and a version of the time-relative interest account of the harm of death. The framework supports liberal views about abortion and embryo research. After rebutting the …