Customer Reviews

Liberal Eugenics: In Defence of Human Enhancement

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book is a valuable and balanced contribution to current ethical debates about biotechnology, offered by one of the most respected of the new crop of thinkers working in the field of philosophical bioethics.

Despite its provocative title, it does not give an uncritical defence of what has become known as "liberal eugenics", i.e. the use of genetic technologies at parental discretion to select the genetic make-up of their children. On the contrary, Agar is opposed to this in many specific instances, and he believes that there would be problems even in developing such a technology ethically.

However, he puts a case that there is no blanket objection to the technology, if it can, indeed, be developed. His concern is to identify the rights and wrongs of specific circumstances - e.g. he would oppose the technology for the purpose of conformity to a dominant racial image.

This kind of nuanced contribution, neither rejecting advanced genetic technologies outright, with a shudder of revulsion, nor embracing them uncritically with libertarian glee, is what the public policy debate needs.