The Illusion of Control

Abstract

One of the most common arguments in favor of reprogenetic technologies is their presumed ability to defy the lack of control and the dangers implicit in the “natural lottery” that results from normal human reproduction. This chapter challenges proponents’ claims about the control that reprogenetic technologies will afford us. By proponents’ own account, human beings lack the intellectual wherewithal to aptly control the so-called natural lottery. Even if one were to concede human beings’ wisdom, the degree of control over the natural lottery that reprogenetic technologies are said to grant is illusory, the result of misunderstanding human biology and the role of genetics.