Embryo Research , Cloning And Designer Babies

Question 1

Nml

Answer 1

Aquinas’ nml would reject all these for a range of reasons.
Primary Precepts
Creation of the embryo through IVF breaches three pp.
•worship god
-those responsible for the IVF process are ‘playing god’
- god alone is the creator of life, which is essentially his gift.

•reproduction
- nml states that it is wrong to separate the sexual act from the procreative act. Here the two are dissociated: the procreactive purpose is fulfilled without the unitive (refers to physical union man and woman in sexual intercourse)

• living in an ordered society
-separating the unitive from the procreative may pose as a threat to marriage and family and harmony, which together form the basis of a harmonious society.

Question 2

Nml ||

Answer 2

Destruction of embryos
At 14 days at the latest, the embryos that are being used for research must be destroyed.

• breaches the first precept preservation of innocent life.
• it is seen as tantamount to murder.

In nml, both the intention and the action must be good.
• the intention of most uses of the embryo is good e.g correcting infertility, curing motor neurone disease. But action is wrong for above reasons (proportionality???)

Creation of designer babies for social reasons
Goes against worship god bc god is taken out of the equation.
Living in ordered society may lead to a race of super humans

Question 3

S.e

Answer 3

Status of the embryo
• for fletcher, personhood was what conferred rights. Personhood = possessing certain characteristics e.g self awareness and the capacity to communicate
The embryo is only a potential person since it does not possess those characteristics.
Therefore, embryo research, cloning and designer babies do not pose moral concerns.

Techniques used

• fletcher supported all techniques providing proper controls were in place.
• he viewed humans as in control of their own reproduction.
• he rejected the traditional belief that humanity is created in gods image.
• for him , what the agapeic calculus showed to be the most loving action in any situation was the right thing to do.

Purpose of techniques
He saw the intentions in many situations of these techniques as being good.
He acknowledged there were risks in genetic engineering but this was a political rather than an ethical problem.

Question 4

S. E key quote

Answer 4

“Control of a childs sex by cloning, to avoid a 1of 50 sex linked genetic diseases or to meet a family’s survival need , might b justifiable “

Question 5

Virtue ethics

Answer 5

Aristotle regarded murder as a vice without any mean.
He presumably agreed with the Hippocratic oath which stated “i will never give a deadly drug to anyone if asked for it”

Aristotle opposed suicide.
It was a base and cowardly act, going against the virtue of courage.
It also went against the virtue of justice, since it deprived society of a useful citizen.

FINISH
- impossible to know what Aristotle would’ve thought but modern virtue ethicists such as Hursthouse tend to think of it as irrelevant to the debate because she claims we cannot know at what stage personhood occurs.

-destruction of embryos; a key virtue to be considered is compassion.
it would seem likely that a compassionate person would focus on those whose lives are being ruined by infertility, by illnesses such as Parkinson’s or by life-threatening genetic disorders rather than on what would be unaware of anything, regardless of whether or not it was a person.
Finish