Abstract

For most of human history children have been a byproduct of sex rather than a conscious choice by parents to create people with traits that they care about. As our understanding of genetics advances along with our ability to control reproduction, prospective parents have stronger moral obligations to consider how their choices are likely to affect their children, and how their children are likely to affect other people. It is time to face up to the awesome responsibilities that accompany our reproductive choices.

Highlights

  • The title of this essay is deliberately provocative

  • With the advent of cheap and effective contraception, and the emergence of new technologies for in vitro fertilization, embryo selection, and genetic engineering, it is becoming increasingly difficult to justify rolling the genetic dice by having children without thinking about the traits they will have

  • I want to reclaim the spirit of authors like Francis Galton and Charles Darwin, who believed that our reproductive obligations change with our understanding of biology and our capacity to control it

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Summary

Introduction

Eugenics can be thought of as any attempt to harness the power of reproduction to produce people with traits that enable them to thrive. Advocates of eugenics add that we should manipulate biology to promote well-being, provided we can do so without imposing undue risk on our children or on other people with whom they will share the planet. I want to reclaim the spirit of authors like Francis Galton and Charles Darwin, who believed that our reproductive obligations change with our understanding of biology and our capacity to control it. Likewise, defending eugenics does not commit us to genetic determinism, according to which genes determine every important aspect of our personality. I’ll end with tentative policy proposals that aim to reverse current dysgenic trends, and increase the extent to which our reproductive choices produce future people who thrive

Demographic trends
Moral Principles
Policy proposals
Free contraception
Genetic education and counseling
Incentives and penalties
Conclusion
Full Text
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