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Why is an Egg Donor a Genetic Parent, but not a Mitochondrial Donor?
MONIKA PIOTROWSKA
Journal: Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics / Volume 28 / Issue 3 / July 2019
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 July 2019, pp. 488-498
Print publication: July 2019
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As new ways of reproducing emerge, advancing technologies are forcing us to rethink our old ideas of what it means to be a genetic parent. Why should some processes qualify as “reproduction” and others should not? To illustrate the practical impact of providing a defensible account of reproduction, the author examines the case of mitochondrial donation (mtDNA) and calls for a philosophical argument to bring clarity to exactly what we mean by ‘reproduction.’

What Does It Mean to Be 75% Pumpkin? The Units of Comparative Genomics
Monika Piotrowska
Journal: Philosophy of Science / Volume 76 / Issue 5 / December 2009
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 January 2022, pp. 838-850
Print publication: December 2009
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Comparative genomicists seem to be convinced that the unit of measurement employed in their studies is a gene that drives the function of cells and ultimately organisms. As a result, they have come to some substantive conclusions about how similar humans are to other organisms based on the percentage of genetic makeup they share. I argue that the actual unit of measurement employed in the studies corresponds to a structural rather than a functional gene concept, thus rendering many of the implications drawn from comparative genomic studies largely unwarranted, if not completely mistaken.