A Companion to the Philosophy of Technology

1. Genes, Identity and Ethics

The genetic revolution has brought us technologies such as genetic screening, genetic pre-implantation and pre-natal diagnosis, gene therapy, cloning and genetic pharmacology. Such technologies raise all sorts of ethical issues. Some of the most profound issues pertain to the impact of genetic technologies on the identity of human beings. For instance, perhaps gene therapy and genetic pharmacology may be used to treat severe diseases such as cystic fibrosis, Tay-Sachs disease and Huntington’s chorea, and even to enhance human characteristics in the “normal” range, including height, memory and intelligence. Such genetic interventions will affect the identity of their recipients in that they will give them certain properties (say, better health or memory) that they would not otherwise have had. But where exactly do we draw the line for such genetic interventions?

Some uses of genetic technology will affect human identities in a deeper sense than this. If a person is successfully treated for, e.g., Huntington’s chorea, this will improve his health and so give him certain new qualities, but it will still be he who receives these new qualities. In other words, his numerical identity is not affected. But now suppose instead that a pre-natal diagnosis reveals that a fetus carries the gene for Huntington’s chorea, and his parents therefore decide to have an abortion and try to have another (healthy) child later. Here, one child is replaced with another that ...