Genetic Essentialisim!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

There is no history or continuity that we can point to with respect to embryo’s who thinks that this conception “can be of little help in determining embryonic identity through genetic alteration.” He therefore seeks to find an alternative viewpoint on identity that he can apply to the issue of embryonic identity. To begin this search Zohar considers the tale of the ship of Theseus his contention that “what primarily characterizes this ship is the particulars of how it runs, how it specifically functions as a ship." His claim is that the fact that we consider the ship to be the same ship despite the replacement of parts of it “is grounded in the primacy of functional organization.”He then goes on to suggest that if the ship was a self constructing unit with its own built in blueprints, then these blueprints would be central to its identity. This he claims is similar genetic makeup; “is not genetic makeup such an enhanced set of blueprints.”He does however acknowledge that in postnatal humans that while geneotype is an important part of a persons identity it is not the only one. This is not the case he claims with embryo’s “at the embryonic stage, all we have to go by is the genotype. If there is any sense at all in which considering the embryo’s existence to be the beginning (or: origin) of a particular human life, then it surely comes down to the fact that once the genotype has been specified, personal identity has been significantly determined.”It is Zohars claim that what is the important and relevant factor for embryonic identity is a persons genome.