Stocking the Genetic Supermarket: Reproductive Genetic Technologies and Collective Action Problems

Various technologies already exist that enable parents to determine whether their future children will have or lack certain genetic predispositions. Pre-natal testing and selective abortion allow parents to decide whether to continue with a particular pregnancy based on genetic information about the developing embryo or foetus. In vitro fertilization (IVF) and preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) allow parents to acquire genetic information about a range of embryos and then determine which to gestate on the basis of that information. In the future it may become possible for parents employing assisted reproductive technologies to decide which eggs to fertilize with which sperm on the basis of reliable genetic information about the available eggs and sperm.1 Advances in genetic engineering technologies could also allow parents to directly alter the genes of existing sperm, eggs, embryos or foetuses.

We use the term ‘reproductive genetic technologies’ or ‘RGTs’ to refer collectively to these technologies and to any other technologies that enable parents or others to (i) determine which of different possible future children to bring into existence based on detailed information about their...