Humanity Enhanced - 9780262026611

Emerging biotechnologies that manipulate human genetic material have drawn a chorusof objections from politicians, pundits, and scholars. In Humanity Enhanced,Russell Blackford eschews the heated rhetoric that surrounds genetic enhancement technologies toexamine them in the context of liberal thought, discussing the public policy issues they raise fromlegal and political perspectives. Some see the possibility of genetic choice as challenging thevalues of liberal democracy. Blackford argues that the challenge is not, as commonly supposed, theurgent need for a strict regulatory action. Rather, the challenge is that fear of these technologieshas created an atmosphere in which liberal tolerance itself is threatened. Focusing on reproductivecloning, pre-implantation genetic diagnosis of embryos, and genetic engineering, Blackford takes onobjections to enhancement technologies (raised by Jürgen Habermas and others) based on such concernsas individual autonomy and distributive justice. He argues that some enhancements would be genuinelybeneficial, and that it would be justified in some circumstances even to exert pressure on parentsto undertake genetic modification of embryos. Blackford argues against draconian suppression ofhuman enhancement, although he acknowledges that some specific and limited regulation may berequired in the future. More generally, he argues, liberal democracies would demonstrate liberalvalues by tolerating and accepting the emerging technologies of genetic choice.