Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- Foreword: shopping at the genetic supermarket
- List of abbreviations
- Acknowledgments
- 1 Is inheritable genetic modification the new dividing line?
- 2 The science of inheritable genetic modification
- 3 Nuclear cloning, embryonic stem cells, and gene transfer
- 4 Controlling bodies and creating monsters: popular perceptions of genetic modifications
- 5 Inheritable genetic modification as moral responsibility in a creative universe
- 6 Ethics and welfare issues in animal genetic modification
- 7 Radical rupture: exploring biologic sequelae of volitional inheritable genetic modification
- 8 “Alter-ing” the human species? Misplaced essentialism in science policy
- 9 Traditional and feminist bioethical perspectives on gene transfer: is inheritable genetic modification really the problem?
- 10 Inheritable genetic modification and disability: normality and identity
- 11 Regulating inheritable genetic modification, or policing the fertile scientific imagination? A feminist legal response
- 12 Inheritable genetic modification: clinical applications and genetic counseling considerations
- 13 Can bioethics speak to politics about the prospect of inheritable genetic modification? If so, what might it say?
- Glossary of scientific terms
- Index
9 - Traditional and feminist bioethical perspectives on gene transfer: is inheritable genetic modification really the problem?
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 29 January 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- Foreword: shopping at the genetic supermarket
- List of abbreviations
- Acknowledgments
- 1 Is inheritable genetic modification the new dividing line?
- 2 The science of inheritable genetic modification
- 3 Nuclear cloning, embryonic stem cells, and gene transfer
- 4 Controlling bodies and creating monsters: popular perceptions of genetic modifications
- 5 Inheritable genetic modification as moral responsibility in a creative universe
- 6 Ethics and welfare issues in animal genetic modification
- 7 Radical rupture: exploring biologic sequelae of volitional inheritable genetic modification
- 8 “Alter-ing” the human species? Misplaced essentialism in science policy
- 9 Traditional and feminist bioethical perspectives on gene transfer: is inheritable genetic modification really the problem?
- 10 Inheritable genetic modification and disability: normality and identity
- 11 Regulating inheritable genetic modification, or policing the fertile scientific imagination? A feminist legal response
- 12 Inheritable genetic modification: clinical applications and genetic counseling considerations
- 13 Can bioethics speak to politics about the prospect of inheritable genetic modification? If so, what might it say?
- Glossary of scientific terms
- Index
Summary
Introduction
Although feminist bioethicists have critiqued the new reproductive and genetic technologies in general, they have written relatively little on the specific topic of gene therapy. To be sure, there are exceptions to this rule. Mary B. Mahowald reflects in depth on genomic alterations and women in her book Genes, Women, Equality. In addition, Jackie Leach Scully and Anita Silvers have routinely challenged both the reigning boundaries between somatic cell gene transfer (SCGT) and germ-line gene transfer (GLGT) on the one hand, and the standard definitions for genetic “treatment” and genetic “enhancement” on the other. Some traditional bioethicists, such as Eric Parens, have also challenged these same boundaries. But when they have done so, they have neglected, overlooked, or chosen to ignore the ways in which raising the so-called “woman question” can help all bioethicists, feminist or non-feminist, provide better advice about which types of gene transfer should be encouraged and which discouraged.
In the following essay, I first offer a fairly traditional bioethical analysis of gene transfer, with an emphasis on GLGT and other forms of inheritable genetic modification (IGM). I then provide some feminist critiques of this mode of analysis, each of which raises the woman question with respect to gene transfer. Finally, I suggest that if traditional bioethics incorporates feminist understandings about gene transfer into its corpus, it has a better chance of serving the best interests of men and women equally.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Ethics of Inheritable Genetic ModificationA Dividing Line?, pp. 159 - 174Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2006