The origin of the present volume can be traced back to the 2006 Congress of the International Association of Bioethics in Beijing. At that meeting, there was a special session on human enhancement in which panelists addressed important issues, such as biopsychological enhancements. The possibility of regulating emotions through pharmacological means, biases that may affect our judgments against human enhancement, health care inequalities that will follow from the adoption of genetic technology, the social impact and cost if the new technology is accepted, and women’s equality by genetically becoming as strong as men were all discussed [1].
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
The 8th World Congress of Bioethics. 2006. Beijing, China: Book of Abstracts, pp. 138–9.
Harris, J. 2007. Enhancing Evolution. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Silver, L.M. 1998. Remaking Eden: How Genetic Engineering and Cloning will Transform the American Family. New York: Avon Books.
Silver, L.M. 2000. Reprogenetics: third millennium speculation The consequences for humanity when reproductive biology and genetics are combined. EMBO Reports 1(5), 375–378.
I have agued elsewhere, that enhancing future generations may be necessary because health care systems in the developed world are nearly collapsing under the pressure of late onset chronic diseases, Simonstein F. 2004, Self-Evolution. The Ethics of Improving Eden. TelAviv: Yozmot. Largely successful in preventing early deaths in the last century, health care systems have prompted a new plague, recognized lately by the World Health Organization as a new pandemic of noncommunicable, chronic diseases. See, Innovative Care for Chronic Conditions. 2002, Global Report. World Health Organization. While bad habits may result in bad health, some people who live abusive life styles may not suffer the ill consequences of others, who may squarely observe the golden rules of good health. This is because there is a genetic predisposition to cancer, diabetes, Alzheimer and cardiovascular diseases. In short, observing healthy life styles may delay the onset of chronic disease in persons who are at risk; which is important; however, this would not prevent the onset of the disease, eventually. Some WHO reports do not ignore that there is a genetic component to these diseases, Genomics andWorld Health, 2002 World Health Organization.
Fukuyama, F. 2002. Our Posthuman Future. London: Profile Books.; Shakespeare, T. 1995, Back to the future? ‘New genetics and disabled people’. Critical Social Policy 44, 22–35; Reproduction and Responsibility. A report of the President’s Council on Bioethics. 2004 Washington, D.C. Hardcopy. Also at www.bioethics.gov. This list is not exhaustive. The WHO has therefore chosen to focus on the uncontroversial change of life styles. See, Care for Chronic Conditions. 2002, Global Report. World Health Organization
Even some developing countries have introduced genetic screening programs for some genetic threats which affect particularly their populations. Medical genetic Services in Developing Countries. 2006. World Health Organization.
Sher, C. et al. 2003. factors affecting performance of prenatal testing by Israeli Jewish women. American Journal of Medical Genetics 120A, 418–422.
Remennick, L. 2006. The quest for the perfect baby: why do Israeli women seek prenatal testing? Sociology of Health & Illness 28, 21–53.
Moreover, women–s determination to take these genetic tests is consistent with a WHO report on genetic testing, which remarks that women “should be making decisions about genetic testing on the basis of their own needs and interests.“WHO Report (Genomics and World Health) 2002, pp. 160.
Simonstein, F. 2004. Germ line engineering (GLE) and late onset diseases. The ethics of self evolution Israel Medical Association Journal 6, 652–657.
Remennick, L. 2000. Childless in the land of imperative motherhood: Stigma and coping among infertile Israeli women. Sex Roles 43, 821–884.
The rate of success for IVF is very low. Kaplan, E.H., A. Hershlag, A. H. DeCherney and G. Lavy. 1992. To be or not to be? That is conception! Managing in vitro fertilization programs. Management Science 38, 1217–1229. In Israel the official publications of IVF success is 30%; but this rate refer to ‘pregnancies’ and not to ‘take home babies’: in 2003 the rate of ‘take home baby’ was 14%. Simonstein F. 2006 Pressures on women to reproduce and the drive towards assisted reproductive technologies. Med Law 25, 355–363.
Remennick, L. 2000. Childless in the land of imperative motherhood: Stigma and coping among infertile Israeli women. Sex Roles 43, 821–841.
Firestone S. 2003 [1970]. The Dialectic of Sex. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
Corea et al. 1987. Man-made Women. Bloomington: Indiana University Press; Arditti et al. 1989 Test-tube Women London: Pandora Press. Cited in Pilcher J. andWhelehan I. 2005 (third edition) 50 Key Concepts in Gender Studies. London: Sage; pp. 142.
Steinberg, D. 1997. Bodies in Glass: Genetics Eugenics and Embryo Ethics. Manchester: Manchester University Press.
Sherwin, S. 1998. ‘A Relational Approach to Autonomy in Health Care.’ In The Politics of Women’s Health: Exploring Agency and Autonomy in Health Care. Ed. Susan, Sherwin Philadelphia: Temple University Press.
MacKenzie, C. and Stoljar, N. 2000. ‘Introduction: Autonomy Refigured.’ In Relational Autonomy: Feminist Perspectives on Autonomy, Agency, and the Social Self. Eds. Catriona MacKenzie and Natalie Stoljar. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
This pattern can be recognized in Israel, where, exceptionally, even the monetary obstruction to pursue ART is inexistent. IVF in Israel is offered to all women who are Israeli citizens, free of charge up to two children (see Chapter 4). As Rickie Solinger points out: “intensely private decisions about reproduction, including decisions about getting pregnant or not, staying pregnant or not, being the mother to the child one gives birth or not, are always shaped by public laws and policies. This may be a particularly difficult insight to bring into focus, in part because of the way ‘personal choice’ has eclipsed all other ways of thinking about pregnancy and motherhood.” Solinger, R. 2005. Pregnancy and Power. New York: New York University Press.
Moreover, since it would be a refusal to a medical prescription, the rejection of enhancing could even end up being viewed as ‘parental negligence’ and therefore, punished by legislation.
During 2008 a man gave birth to a child; but this could happen only because he was femaleborne, and still had a womb.
Women’s choice in reproductive matters may have become somewhat more manageable since the advent of the pill; yet unwanted pregnancies are not uncommon. This is an awful situation for women even having accsess to safe abortion (which is still forbidden today in 80 percent of all countries).
In Israel cycles of IVF up to two children per israeli citizen women are paid by public funds (see Chapter 4).
Singer, P. and Wells, D. 1984. The Reproduction Revolution. New ways to Making Babies. Oxford: Oxford University Press; Firestone, S. The Dialectic of Sex: The Case for Feminist Revolution (1970. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 3rd ed. 2003).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2009 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Simonstein, F. (2009). Introduction. In: Simonstein, F. (eds) Reprogen-ethics and the future of gender. International Library of Ethics, Law, and the New Medicine, vol 43. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-2475-6_1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-2475-6_1
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-90-481-2474-9
Online ISBN: 978-90-481-2475-6
eBook Packages: MedicineMedicine (R0)