Abstract
In a little book called The Right to Life, Norman St John-Stevas wrote that: ‘One reason for the rise of Hitler was precisely the number of people who could command no metaphysical view of human nature’ (p. 15). This remark is, of course, open to the retort that another reason for Hitler’s rise to power was the existence of a sufficient number of people who did command a certain view of human nature. Either way I simply want to take from the exchange the point that a ‘metaphysical view’ is not an unimportant matter. I wish more particularly to show how a ‘metaphysical view’ is unavoidably in question when it comes to determining how, as a society, we should address the difficult and largely uncharted ethical problems which arise in the wake of biotechnology. The argument of the chapter will be that it is not so much the technology as the accompanying genetic theory which presents the greatest challenge.
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