4 Procreative Beneficence: is Selection Really Better Than Genetic Modification?

Abstract

At the beginning of the 21st century, Julian Savulescu proposed a principle intended to guide prospective parents' choices regarding the genetic makeup of their future children. The so-called Principle of Procreative Beneficence (PPB) states as follows: Couples (or single reproducers) should select the child, of the possible children they could have, who is expected to have the best life, or at least as good a life as the others, based on the relevant, available information. (Savulescu 2001, 415) Some years later, together with Gay Kahane, he reformulated the PPB. The new formulation reads: If couples (or single reproducers) have decided to have a child, and selection is possible, then they have a significant moral reason to select the child, of the possible children they could have, whose life can be expected, in light of the relevant available information, to go best or at least not worse than any of the others. (Savulescu and Kahane 2009) * Derek Parfit died while I was working on the final version of this paper. This paper is humbly dedicated to his memory.

From Self‐Determination to Offspring‐Determination? Reproductive Autonomy, Procrustean Parenting, and Genetic Enhancement

“…For instance, aesthetic preferences (e.g., slim women) change over time and from generation to generation. Allowing parents to 6 An interesting debate which is unfortunately beyond the scope of this paper is whether PGD could be replaced or complemented by genome editing (see Cavaliere, 2018;Rodríguez L opez, 2019;de Araujo, 2020;Ranisch, 2020).…”