Key Words to be happy withGenetically modified food – food whose genetic

composition is altered to boost yields, disease resistance etc.

Designer babies – babies whose genetic makeup is predetermined

Therapeutic gene therapy – using gene and stem cell research to treat or cure diseases

Totipotent stem cells - master cell that can become any kind of cell, present for first 14 days of embryo life.

Cloning – creating a form of life with identical genetic structure.

IVF treatment – creating an embryo outside the wombEmbryo – a developing collection of cells up to eight

weeks old

Stem cell researchStem cells can change into other cells (nerve, muscle,

skin) eg mend hearts and repair bones. Click on link below for useful Q and A.

http://www.philosophicalinvestigations.co.uk/index.php?view=article&catid=57%3Agenetic-engineering-and-embryo-research&id=155%3Aquestion-and-answer-stem-cell-research&option=com_content&Itemid=54

Cells in early embryos up to 14 days are totipotent (can change into anything).

Embryos are destroyed after fertilisation.May be taken from surplus IVF treatment, or grown

specially.Problem: may be rejected by patient as genetic

makeup will be different, unless patient’s own stem cells are used.

Evaluate the following viewsThe consequences are unknown (cancers, deformities

etc), so it’s impossible to do the utilitarian calculation.

A human life, even in embryo form, is sacred.This process is “playing God”.The embryo is just a cluster of cells, so the Kantian

argument “never use a human as just a means to an end” cannot apply.

The embryos used in IVF treatment are destroyed anyway, so this is clearly a utilitarian gain.

Therapeutic cloningCreate identical clone to the patient to harvest stem

cells/ bone marrow etc.Dolly the sheep was successfully cloned in 1997.In 2001 House of Lords legalised human embryo

cloning as long as they are destroyed within 14 days.Reproductive cloning is still banned (so I can’t try and

reproduce an exact copy of...me!).Is it moral to use some human beings as a means to

an end? Has led some to create a child to save a child with a

terminal disease as in the film “My Sister’s Keeper” (2009) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1078588/

Questions over Dolly the sheepAfter 430 manipulated eggs, only Dolly was

successfully reared.Others suffered abnormalities or miscarried.Dolly was put down at the age of six, suffering from a

progressive lung disease.She was found to be ageing faster than expected.

Do the risks of such experiments with human embryos outweigh potential benefits?

Designer babies: different casesDesign a baby with a genetic makeup to save another

child. In 2003 the Hashmi family were allowed to design such a baby to save their daughter.

Design a baby to prevent miscarriage. Philippa Handyside was permitted to design a baby with genes to prevent miscarriage. (NB the genes were not enhanced in any way, the embryo was simply chosen from a number of fertilised eggs).

Design a baby to create a super-child: intelligent, good at games, disease free etc etc (illegal by 1990 Act)

Human Fertilisation and Embryo Authority HFEA (1990)Embryo research is allowed: - to promote advances in fertility treatment - to investigate congenital diseases - to investigate causes of miscarriage - to develop effective contraception - to help detect genetic abnormalities

Right to a child issuesDo the Hashmis have a right to a genetically

enhanced child to save another one?Does Philippa Handyside have the right to a child

through a miscarriage-free pregnancy?Do infertile couples have the right to IVF treatment

with/without a surrogate womb, free on the NHS? How many chances should they have?

Does a woman have the right to use the frozen sperm of her dead husband? (Kantian principle of consent?)

Do same sex couples have the right to a child by using a surrogate mother?

Discuss

“Children are a gift of God. There is no right to a child.”

Roman Catholic Church (1990)

Roman Catholic Church viewThe Church teaches that medical research must refrain

from operations on live embryos, unless there is moral certainty of not causing harm to the life or integrity of the unborn child and mother, and on condition that the parents have given free and informed consent.

Since stem cell research on human embryos invariably causes the death of those embryos, it too stands condemned.

In summary, the Catholic Church condemns as gravely evil acts, both IVF, and stem cell research performed on IVF embryos. See Donum Vitae (1995)

http://www.newadvent.org/library/docs_jp02ev.htm

Have humans been cloned?Dr Hwang of South Korea claimed in 2006 to have

cloned the first human.The records were falsified and despite trying with

over 2,000 eggs, no successful cloning took place.

“When our children become the products of our wills, created by our design, to satisfy our desires, they are profoundly dehumanized— they are not begotten, but made.”

Dr. Leon Kass

Issue 1: reductionism“You,” your joys and your sorrows, your memories and

your ambitions, your sense of personal identity and free will, are in fact no more than the behaviour of a vast assembly of nerve cells and their associated molecules.” Francis Crick The Astonishing Hypothesis

Dr Robert Song sees developments as shaped by the “Baconian project”, the aim to maximise choice and eliminate suffering....so human beings are reduced to their genetic inheritance and children seen as an addition to human happiness, a product of choice.

Issue 2: the slippery slopeBecause the technology exists to clone sheep, it is

inevitable that people will one day be cloned. So the process must stop now.

Mary Warnock argues: “The techniques for isolating and developing embryonic stem cells are the same as those used for cloning whole animals, and it was argued that there would now be no stopping scientists from going on with the process. It is inevitable that the next steps should follow. Therefore it is morally imperative to prohibit the first step. I have never thought this a very strong form of argument. After all there is no logical necessity determining that the second or third step should follow the first. It is rather a reflexion on human nature: once they have one thing, people will always demand more.”

Issue 3: equalityThere is a risk of a nightmare two-tier society, like the

film Gattaca portrays.

Kantians using the principle of ends argue for the absolute dignity and equality of all of us.

Although Bentham and Mill protest that utilitarians believe “everyone counts as one”, Mill’s higher and lower pleasures imply the academic is superior to the disabled person, because superior pleasures count more.

Frankenfood: GM seedsGM seeds boost crop yields and promote disease

resistance.But allegations of exploitation of poor farmers as seed

self destructs and so cannot be re-sown. Click on link below for article on Indian farmers.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1082559/The-GM-genocide-Thousands-Indian-farmers-committing-suicide-using-genetically-modified-crops.html#ixzz0YMKyTDNU

Fears that balance of nature will be destroyed as GM seed wipes out natural seed.

Conclusions“Right to a child” is ambiguous: infertile couple is

different moral case from designing a baby to be “superior”.

Misery caused by infertility and inherited diseases gives an overwhelming utilitarian case for IVF and stem cell research...if risks can be managed.

Natural Law theorists could support research under a “preserve life” precept...but Roman Catholic Church takes a strong view on the sanctity of the in vitro embryo, whose destruction constitutes a “grave sin”.

Kantians require a decision on whether an embryo is a “person”, but would reject creating a life to save a life.