PHIL 150 Lecture Notes - Lecture 11: Gene Therapy
Document Summary
Gene therapy (negative engineering): genetic alteration that is aimed at curing diseases or removing a genetic disability. (generally seen as morally permissible). Genetic enhancement (positive engineering): genetic alteration aimed at improving someone genetically to a level that is beyond what is adequate, or normal. (generally seen as not morally permissible). Unfair competitive advantage: enhancement gives people an unfair competitive advantage over others. Reply: the rich presently give their children the best schooling, the best trainers, the best medical treatments, the best technology, This seems to give the wealthy a competitively unfair advantage currently. Reply: there are also people that are genetically gifted at birth. Unexpected side-effects (cost-benefit analysis): if you improve someone, necessarily, the person will also be unimproved. For example, increase intelligence is necessarily coupled with insanity. This assumes that our genes are optimized right now which is not necessarily true. We are at the ceiling according to this view.
