Are ecosystems complex objects capable of bearing intrinsic value? In virtue of what features might ecosystems possess intrinsic value?
Abstract: Preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) refers to procedures to test genetically embryos in vitro. One means to create “designer babies” is to produce several embryos in the lab and then use PGD to select a candidate (or candidates) for implantation. Those embryos not selected for implantation are typically destroyed or cryogenically preserved. Presently, PGD is used mainly for ‘negative selection’: assaying for genetic abnormalities associated with monogenetic diseases like Huntington’s disease, and chromosomal irregularities such as Robertsonian translocations. Increasingly, PGD is employed for ‘positive selection’, for reasons other than attempting to detect genetic abnormalities, e.g., it is has been used to select embryos for tissue matching to save an elder sibling, and for gender selection. In the near term, there is the distinct possibility that it could be used to select for genes associated with the potential for increased muscle mass, perfect pitch, or high IQ. Clearly there are a number of important moral questions and issues that arise from the use and prospective expansion of positive selection. This paper considers one objection: since embryos are persons, and positive selection involves the destruction of so many embryos, positive selection harms persons. This paper argues that even if we grant the (contested) claim that embryos are persons, positive selection does not harm the persons created through this process. That is, this paper has the counterintuitive conclusion that a policy that permits positive selection cannot be said to harm those persons created, even if it is foreseeable that tens of thousands of persons will be killed through this process. The argument is an application of Parfit’s famous ‘non-identity’ problem. Time permitting, I will show that there is a contradiction in some of the best-known applications of the non-identity problem.
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