Customer Reviews

Genetic Dilemmas: Reproductive Technology, Parental Choices, and Children's Futures

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As a whole, Davis' book is a well-articulated assessment of some of the largest ethical dilemmas surrounding reproductive genetics. She is gracious to those who may disagree with her, and shows a great deal of compassion and understanding to parents who must wrestle with these issues. Many of the concerns Davis raises in Genetic Dilemmas are very important to consider since the technologies surrounding them have already become (or are soon-to-become) common practice. She is also to be commended for her efforts to separate these issues from the controversial questions surrounding abortion, and to instead examine the implications of these technologies on their own. However, since many critics of abortion find the practice of embryo wastage from in vitro fertilization and pre-implantation genetic diagnosis (IVF & PGD) to be analogous to abortion, they will dismiss Davis' acceptance of some parents use of these technologies.

Dena Davis gives a very thorough, readable update to her argument that concern for the child's "open future" should guide the use of genetics in reproductive choices. This is one of the central arguments in contemporary gen-ethics, and is very accessible in this slim volume.