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Abstract of a presentation at Is There a Global Bioethics? Moral, Legal, and International Norms in Bioscience, New York, NY
Many applications of human biotechnology promise new ways of preventing and curing disease. But others could exacerbate existing discrimination and inequality and create new forms of injustice. Proposals to use reproductive and genetic technologies to produce "enhanced" children are particularly problematic, since this would open the door to a high-tech consumer eugenics that could divide human society, and grant novel forms of control over individuals' lives and life prospects to those purveying the technologies.
While "transgenic babies" may remain beyond technical reach, biotechnologies being developed today also pose under-examined challenges for justice and equality. Debate about stem cell and cloning research, for example, has focused on rebutting religious objections to the use of human embryos in scientific investigation. Research supporters have often inadequately attended to issues such as the health equity impacts of proposed cloning-based individualized therapies, and the protection of research subjects, including women who provide eggs for somatic cell nuclear transfer.