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Defending the de dicto approach to the non-identity problem

Is it wrong to create a blind child, for example by in vitro fertilization, if you could create a sighted child instead? Intuitively many people believe it is wrong, but this belief is difficult to justify. When there is a possibility to create and select either ‘blind’ or ‘sighted’ embryos choosing...

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Autor principal: Räsänen, Joona
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Springer International Publishing 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10654157/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37358739
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s40592-023-00177-9
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author Räsänen, Joona
author_facet Räsänen, Joona
author_sort Räsänen, Joona
collection PubMed
description Is it wrong to create a blind child, for example by in vitro fertilization, if you could create a sighted child instead? Intuitively many people believe it is wrong, but this belief is difficult to justify. When there is a possibility to create and select either ‘blind’ or ‘sighted’ embryos choosing a set of ‘blind’ embryos seems to harm no-one since choosing ‘sighted’ embryos would create a different child altogether. So when the parents choose ‘blind’ embryos, they give some specific individual a life that is the only option for her. Because her life is worth living (as blind peoples’ lives are), the parents have not wronged the child by creating her. This is the reasoning behind the famous non-identity problem. I suggest that the non-identity problem is based on a misunderstanding. I claim that when choosing a ‘blind’ embryo, prospective parents harm ‘their child’, whoever she or he will be. Put another way: parents harm their child in the de dicto sense and that is morally wrong.
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spelling pubmed-106541572023-06-26 Defending the de dicto approach to the non-identity problem Räsänen, Joona Monash Bioeth Rev Original Article Is it wrong to create a blind child, for example by in vitro fertilization, if you could create a sighted child instead? Intuitively many people believe it is wrong, but this belief is difficult to justify. When there is a possibility to create and select either ‘blind’ or ‘sighted’ embryos choosing a set of ‘blind’ embryos seems to harm no-one since choosing ‘sighted’ embryos would create a different child altogether. So when the parents choose ‘blind’ embryos, they give some specific individual a life that is the only option for her. Because her life is worth living (as blind peoples’ lives are), the parents have not wronged the child by creating her. This is the reasoning behind the famous non-identity problem. I suggest that the non-identity problem is based on a misunderstanding. I claim that when choosing a ‘blind’ embryo, prospective parents harm ‘their child’, whoever she or he will be. Put another way: parents harm their child in the de dicto sense and that is morally wrong. Springer International Publishing 2023-06-26 2023 /pmc/articles/PMC10654157/ /pubmed/37358739 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s40592-023-00177-9 Text en © The Author(s) 2023 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) .
spellingShingle Original Article
Räsänen, Joona
Defending the de dicto approach to the non-identity problem
title Defending the de dicto approach to the non-identity problem
title_full Defending the de dicto approach to the non-identity problem
title_fullStr Defending the de dicto approach to the non-identity problem
title_full_unstemmed Defending the de dicto approach to the non-identity problem
title_short Defending the de dicto approach to the non-identity problem
title_sort defending the de dicto approach to the non-identity problem
topic Original Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10654157/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37358739
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s40592-023-00177-9
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