Week 3 Post 3-Wrongful Birth and Wrongful Life
I was very interested in learning about how different disability communities thought about genetic testing and selecting traits, with the Deaf community utilizing the technology a bit, and many other communities being very against it. I also was somewhat concerned when I heard of the concept of the Non-Identity problem because it sounded to me like a "life begins at conception" argument, but after learning more about it I realized the problem is just working within the framework of an argument presented. I also would say I was surprised that most courts have generally decided that wrongful life cases cannot be brought to court, because to me they make more sense than wrongful birth, because the person most directly wronged is the child not the parent.
One question I have is how will the definition of a life worth living change in the future? Are their any ethically sound arguments for state regulation of reproduction? How could changing society's view on disabilities effect how people utilize genetic reproductive technology?
What should have higher priority in your view the rights of the parents to include the child in their community (deaf community) and the future rights of the child?
ReplyDeleteIn that particular case it is hard to say, because while I believe that the rights of the child should have higher priority, in the end no gets to chose to be born, so the right of choice is already somewhat taken away. I also think it is an ethical gray area to say that the child would have been better off if it was not deaf, because the child would have been raised, regardless, in Deaf culture and would probably feel isolation from the culture and in general since it would not be apart of the community
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