lecture notes 7/19/01

genetic interventions, eugenics, genetic determinism, social darwinism

• FCC intro (Chapt. 1)
  • Need for systematic ethical thinking
  • genome project
  • modes of genetic intervention
    • direct
      • gene therapy
        • insert genes into cells
      • gene surgery
        • existing genes are deactivated
    • indirect
      • genetic pharmacology
      • embryo selection
    • "third" (loosely genetic)
      • reproductive genetic testing
        • to decide whether to reproduce (parents, fetuses)
      • therapeutic genetic testing
        • identify heriditary diseases that can be prevented
      • therapeutic genetic testing
  • eugenics
  • models
    • public health model
      • benefits/harms to group
      • focus is consequentialist
      • "vertical epidemic model"
      • harm: infringes on individual liberty
    • personal service model
      • "non-directiveness"
        • genetic counseling
      • genetic tests/interventions are services to individuals
        • for private consumption
      • focus is individual autonomy
        • not society's business
      • harms
        • ignores obligations
          • to prevent harm
          • to basic requirements of justice
        • subjugates autonomy of children to parents
        • exacerbates inequalites
    • third approach (that FCC endorses)
      • steer a course between the two
  • philosophical foundations
    • justice
      • equal opportunity principle (level playing field conception of justice)
      • Daniel's theory of just health care
        • remove barriers to opportunities that are due to disease
      • genetic intervention is a means of achieving equal opportunity
      • diseases vs. "natural" inequalities (e.g., intelligence)
    • prospects of genetic interventions challenge existing ethical theory
      • new choices
      • unclear boundary between misfortune and injustice
    • choice of underlying cooperative scheme (social philosophy) --> choice of genetic interventions --> choice of who will & will not be disabled
• Eugenics
  • What is eugenics?
    • literally means "well born" (coined by Galton, 1883)
      • usually refers to a set of social movements, 1870-1950
      • has become a vague term, with different meanings in different contexts
    • Pearson, Galton Laboratory
    • US: Charles Davenport
      • "Eugenics Records Office"
    • Nazism (facism)
    • Sweden (social democrat)
      • eugenics is compatible with different political viewpoints
    • common themes
      • degeneration of the gene pool
        • society rescues the unfit (runs counter to Social Darwinism)
      • heritability of behavioral traits
      • genetic determinism
        • "our fate is in our genes"
        • social problems have biological causes
      • positive eugenics
        • encourage most fit to reproduce
      • negative eugenics
        • discourage or prevent less fit to reproduce
        • involuntary sterilization
      • reproduction is an act with social consequences rather than a private affair
  • FCC autopsy
    • five theses (see FCC 46-52; "FCC bit")
• Glover ("Eugenics and Human Rights")
  • "yuk factor"
  • Moral Decisions about Who is Born
    • Parents who choose to have a baby without an incurable genetic disease over one with it are making a eugenic choice
    • But an antenatel screening program is not like Nazi eugencics
    • the former is "a policy based on respect for parental autonomy"; the latter is "a state policy of tidying up the world by deliberately eliminating whole groups who did not fit the state blueprint of an ideal person." (GRHR, 109)
    • complications from screening programs (indirect genetic intervention): threat to equality of respect
    • complications from gene therapy: "massive genetic changes could blur the boundary between changing the characteristics of one person and replacing one person with another" (110)
  • Social Darwinism and Sociobiology
    • Social Darwinism = the view that human society does well by competitive processes in which the fittest survive
    • social philosophy: we should not help the less fit
    • modern versions (eg., Nazism) focus on genetic determinism
    • Sociobiology = the study of the biological basis of social behavior
      • attempts to reduce sociology to biology
      • some sociobiologists (e.g., E. Wilson) argue for a variant on Social Darwinism (Wilson: attempts at social engineering are wasteful)
      • also subscribes to genetic determinism
  • Kitcher ("Giving Darwin his Due" Section V)
    • Philosophical backdrop to the discussion of genetic determinism
    • General Problem: two extreme views
      • Evolutionary theory has little to do with philosophy
      • "Now that we know" the role of natural selection in hominid evolution, traditional philosophical problems are easily solved
    • Questions
      • Does Darwinism reveal how human societies ought to be constructed, or how human beings ought to behave? Does it finally debunk morality?
      • Or is it simply irrelevant to our understanding of morality?
      • What exactly is the relationship between evolutionary theory and ethics?
    • Four views and one tentative conclusion
      1. Darwinism yields new basic moral principles.
         • Naturalistic Fallacy
           • Danger of drawing normative claims from evolutionary premises.
         • Sociobiology (reductive)
           • How to explain the emergance of altruism?
           • Inclusive fitness, group selection
           • Wilson's Ladder (oppose social engineering)
         • Evolutionary Game theory (analogy)
           • Kitcher: We should Distinguish between biological altruism and psychological altruism
      2. Darwinism supports the view that (for example) moral judgments cannot have truth-values or that moral knowledge is impossible. (meta-ethics)
      3. Darwinism helps us to trace the history of our morality and social systems.
         • But a an analysis of history is no guarantee that we won't try to change things.
         • E.g., Moore.
      4. Darwinism (along with existing moral principles) helps us to derive new moral judgments.
         • "Perhaps we come to understand ourselves as having obligations not to treat other animals in particular ways. "
      5. one tentative conclusion (after considerable analysis)
         • II, III and IV are hard to separate
         • our present moral vocubulary needs updating in the face of evolutionary theory
• Genetic Determinism & Behavioral Genetics
  • Genetic Determinism
    • also called "biological determinism"
    • = the view that genes are direct causes of traits & behaviors
    • two problems
      1. scientifically wrong: faulty causal reasoning about genes
      2. morally wrong: allows for the abdication of moral and social responsibility
  • Hamer
    • "the gay gene"
    • "a gene for everything" "gene of the week"
  • The Bell Curve (race & intelligence)
  • identical twins
    • do identical looks create similiar environments?
    • molly & dolly
  • Genetic Causation
    • Sobel's four questions (FCC, 354)
      • Do genes causally contribute to the trait?
      • Ho much do genes, as opposed to the environment, contribute to the trait?
        • nature-nurture debate
      • Which genes contribute to the trait?
      • How do these genes contribute to the trait?
    • common cause, hidden cause, direct cause, indirect cause?
      • FCC p. 367 example (causal graph)
      • Fisher's smoking example
    • bottom line: genetic tests are at best probabilities