The costly appliance of science | ||
Genetic selection has some alarming implications - and could widen the wealth gap | ||
beyond repair. | ||
Peter Singer | ||
1 | The advance of knowledge is often a mixed blessing. Over the past 60 years, nuclear | |
physics has been one obvious example of this truth. Over the next 60 years, genetics | ||
may be another. | ||
2 | Today, enterprising firms offer, for a fee, to tell you about your genes. They claim | |
that this knowledge will help you live longer and better. You might, for example, have | ||
extra checkups to detect early signs of the diseases that you are most at risk of | ||
contracting, or you could alter your diet to reduce that risk. If your chances of a long | ||
lifespan are not good, you might buy more life insurance, or even retire early to have | ||
enough time to do what you always wanted to do. | ||
3 | Defenders of privacy have worked, with some success, to prevent insurance | |
companies from requiring genetic testing before issuing life insurance. But if individuals | ||
can do tests from which insurance companies are barred, and if those who receive | ||
adverse genetic information then buy additional life insurance without disclosing the | ||
tests that they have taken, they are cheating other holders of life insurance. Premiums | ||
will have to increase to cover the losses, and those with a good genetic prognosis may | ||
opt out of life insurance to avoid subsidising the cheats, driving premiums higher still. | ||
4 | __5__. The United States government accountability office sent identical genetic | |
samples to several of the testing companies, and got widely varying, and mostly | ||
useless, advice. But as the science improves, the insurance problem will have to be | ||
faced. | ||
5 | Selecting our children raises more profound ethical problems. This is not new. In | |
developed countries, the routine testing of older pregnant women, combined with the | ||
availability of abortion, has significantly reduced the incidence of conditions such as | ||
Down’s syndrome. In some regions of India and China where couples are anxious to | ||
have a son, selective abortion has been the ultimate form of sexism, and has been | ||
practised to such an extent that a generation is coming of age in which males face a | ||
shortage of female partners. | ||
6 | Selection of children need not involve abortion. For several years, some couples at | |
risk of passing a genetic disease on to their children have used in vitro fertilisation, | ||
producing several embryos that can be tested for the faulty gene and implanting in the | ||
woman’s uterus only those without it. Now couples are using this technique to avoid | ||
passing on genes that imply a significantly elevated risk of developing certain forms of | ||
cancer. | ||
7 | Since everyone carries some adverse genes, there is no clear line between | |
selecting against a child with above-average risks of contracting a disease and selecting | ||
for a child with unusually rosy health prospects. __7__, genetic selection will inevitably | ||
move towards genetic enhancement. | ||
8 | For many parents, nothing is more important than giving their child the best possible | |
start in life. They buy expensive toys to maximise their child’s learning potential and | ||
spend much more on private schools or after-school tutoring in the hope that he or she | ||
will excel in the tests that determine entry to elite universities. It may not be long before | ||
we can identify genes that improve the odds of success in this quest. | ||
9 | Many will condemn this as a resurgence of “eugenics”, the view, especially popular | |
in the early 20th century, that hereditary traits should be improved through active | ||
intervention. So it is, in a way, and in the hands of authoritarian regimes, genetic | ||
selection could resemble earlier forms of eugenics, with their advocacy of odious, | ||
pseudoscientific official policies, particularly concerning “racial hygiene”. | ||
10 | In liberal, market-driven societies, however, eugenics will not be coercively imposed | |
by the state for the collective good. Instead, it will be the outcome of parental choice | ||
and the workings of the free market. If it leads to healthier, smarter people with better | ||
problem-solving abilities, that will be a good thing. But even if parents make choices that | ||
are good for their children, there could be perils as well as blessings. | ||
11 | In the case of sex selection, it is easy to see that couples who independently choose | |
the best for their own child can produce an outcome that makes all their children worse | ||
off than they would have been if no one could select the sex of their child. Something | ||
similar could happen with other forms of genetic selection. Since above-average height | ||
correlates with above-average income, and there is clearly a genetic component to | ||
height, it is not fanciful to imagine couples choosing to have taller children. The outcome | ||
could be a genetic “arms race” that leads to taller and taller children, with significant | ||
environmental costs in the additional consumption required to fuel larger human beings. | ||
12 | The most alarming implication of this mode of genetic selection, however, is that | |
only the rich will be able to afford it. The gap between rich and poor, already a challenge | ||
to our ideas of social justice, will become a chasm that mere equality of opportunity will | ||
be powerless to bridge. That is not a future that any of us should approve. | ||
The Guardian |