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"The Case Against Perfection: Ethics in the Age of Genetic Engineering" From left to right: David Magnus, Michael Sandel, Hank Greely
A panel on the ethics of genetic engineering held yesterday afternoon turned into a heated discussion about both medical technologies and the problems of “hyper-parenting.”
The event, co-sponsored by the Center on Ethics and the Program in Ethics and Society, featured Harvard Prof. Michael Sandel.
The discussion was focused on the ethical problems of using biomedical technologies to determine and choose from the genetic material of human embryos, a predicament Sandel discusses in his book, “The Case Against Perfection: Ethics in the Age of Genetic Engineering.” Sandel was joined by Law Prof. Hank Greely ‘74 and Pediatrics Prof. David Magnus Ph.D. ‘93 on the panel.
“These are three of the greatest minds on this issue — not just for the nation but for the globe,” said Center on Ethics Director Deborah Rhode, who is also a professor at the Law School. “This issue has enormous policy implications about the society we live in and the world we will inherit.”
Sandel spoke about some common objections to embryonic genetic engineering, such as the issue of sex discrimination by predetermining a child’s gender, but he focused on matters not currently on the public’s radar screen.
In particular, Sandel said that love for children should be unconditional and that parents should accept the qualities that their children naturally acquire, rather than choosing them through genetic engineering.
“Parents already shape their children in [ways other than] genetic molding, by sending them to tennis camp and through SAT prep,” Sandel said. “I think they are very similar forms of ‘hyper-parenting.’”
Though Greely and Magnus both largely agreed with Sandel, they nevertheless took issue with some of his points. Their discussion of whether genetic engineering is always wrong and about the problems of hyper-parenting seeped into the audience, which was largely composed of professors. Still, the students in the crowd found the issue intriguing.
“It was a very interesting topic,” said Brooksie Riley ‘08. “I think that this is an important and growing issue that most students would find interesting — particularly people that were kids of hyper-parents.”
Political Science and Classics Prof. Josiah Ober, a member of the steering committee of the Program in Ethics and Society, underscored the importance of the discussion.
“The next generation will have to deal with this issue front and center,” he said. “This is what Ethics and Society does — it sees the movement of science and confronts those issues.”