Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Sorts of genetic interventions that are acceptable...

the treatment/enhancement distinction has been seen as a means of deciding between those sorts of genetic interventions that are acceptable and those that are not, it does not fully answer the questions asked about these procedures. With the use of the concept of genetic maladies, the treatment side of the distinction seems able to cope quite well with objections raised against it; it is the other side of the distinction that requires more work. There are a number of reasons for looking further at the enhancement side of the equation. The first of these is that there may be conditions or states of a person that, though not falling within the boundaries of genetic maladies may nevertheless be worthwhile candidates, both in terms of particular persons and for society in general, for genetic intervention. The second reason is that there may be disagreement between differing groups with respect to the status of certain procedures. It may be the case that treatment of certain conditions, such as deafness, which seem to fall within the domain of a malady, may be viewed by other groups, particularly a deaf societal community, as unacceptable both because they do not view it as a necessary treatment, or because they view being deaf vital with respect to their community because they do not regard it as malady. We need a method of determining those conditions, which are not candidates for treatment, but which are nonetheless legitimate targets for enhancement genetic intervention.

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