Abstract
Reproductive genetic technologies (RGTs) allow parents to decide whether their future children will have or lack certain genetic predispositions. A popular model that has been proposed for regulating access to RGTs is the ‘genetic supermarket’. In the genetic supermarket, parents are free to make decisions about which genes to select for their children with little state interference. One possible consequence of the genetic supermarket is that collective action problems will arise: if rational individuals use the genetic supermarket in isolation from one another, this may have a negative effect on society as a whole, including future generations. In this article we argue that RGTs targeting height, innate immunity, and certain cognitive traits could lead to collective action problems. We then discuss whether this risk could in principle justify state intervention in the genetic supermarket. We argue that there is a plausible prima facie case for the view that such state intervention would be justified and respond to a number of arguments that might be adduced against that view.
Highlights
Reproductive genetic technologies (RGTs) allow parents to decide whether their future children will have or lack certain genetic predispositions
One possible consequence of the genetic supermarket is that collective action problems will arise: if rational individuals use the genetic supermarket in isolation from one another, this may have a negative effect on society as a whole, including future generations
In this article we argue that RGTs targeting height, innate immunity, and certain cognitive traits could lead to collective action problems
Summary
The idea that collective action problems could potentially result from widespread access to particular RGTs has been suggested by many authors. Genetic enhancement could lead to a collective action problem, in which the rational pursuit of individual self-interest makes us all worse off. We will examine the significance of the collective action problem presented by RGTs targeting height. Widespread access to sex selection technologies may result in collective action problems in certain parts of the world. If it is in an individual’s best interest to be a particular sex because of certain social conditions, the widespread availability RGTs targeting sex may make everyone worse off by causing a large imbalance in the sex ratio. No individual couple or single parent could make their future child expectedly better off by acting differently, but if all parents acted differently, all of their children would be expectedly better off.[15]
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