Choosing Tomorro's Children The Ethics of Selective Reproduction [Hardcover]

To what extent should parents be allowed to use reproductive technologies to determine the characteristics of their future children? And is there something morally wrong with parents who wish to do this?Choosing Tomorrow's Childrenprovides answers to these (and related) questions. In particular, the book looks at issues raised by selective reproduction, the practice of choosing between different possible future persons by selecting or deselecting (for example) embryos, eggs, and sperm.

Wilkinson offers answers to questions including the following. Do children have a 'right to an open future' and, if they do, what moral constraints does this place upon selective reproduction? Should parents be allowed to choose their future children's sex? Should we 'screen out' as much disease and disability as possible before birth, or would that be an objectionable form of eugenics? Is it acceptable to create or select a future person in order to provide lifesaving tissue for an existing relative? Is there a moral difference between selecting to avoid disease and selecting to produce an 'enhanced' child? Should we allow deaf parents to use reproductive technologies to ensure that they have a deaf child?

1. Introduction: the Ethics of Selective Reproduction
2. Parental Duties and Virtues
3. Selecting for Disability and the Welfare of the Child
4. Choosing One for the Sake of Another
5. Treating Children as Commodities
6. Eugenics and the Expressivist Argument
7. Enhancement
8. Sex Selection

All in all, this is a tremendously rich and well-argued book. It will be of great interest to philosophers working on the ethics of reproduction and in related areas, as well as an invaluable tool for policymakers on selective reproduction. --Mind

Stephen Wilkinsonis Professor of Bioethics and Director of the Centre for Professional Ethics at Keele University.