Diversity, disability and eugenics: An interview with Rob Sparrow

Australian bioethicist Rob Sparrow has written extensively on topics ranging from political philosophy and minority rights to the ethics of war, robot ethics and even the ethics of nanotechnology. Yet he is arguably best known for his work in bioethics. While in one sense part of a mainstream bioethics academy, Professor Sparrow often provides a refreshingly unique perspective and challenges establishment opinions in the field. As Richard R. Sharp has noted, “Sparrow’s scholarship exemplifies the value of the intellectual gadfly – even when that work ruffles a few feathers among the bioethical elite.”

In the following interview Professor Sparrow and BioEdge’s Xavier Symons discuss current controversies in bioethics and, in particular, questions surrounding genetic diversity, the elimination of disability, and the so-called new eugenics.  

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Vulnerability and genetic diversity

Xavier Symons: Recently you've written on the topic of disability and new reproductive technologies. This seems related to the notion of vulnerability as it has been discussed in recent philosophical literature.

Rob Sparrow: There is a debate about vulnerability, which is concerned with power relations –for example...