class on "Ethical Issues in Reproductive and Genetic Technologies"

Professor de Melo-Martin is on on the faculty of Cornell Medical School and is a guest at the UW this winter.  This would be a great class for someone with a little background in philosophy and the desire to be in a small class taught by a top expert.

PHIL 401B (I. de Melo-Martin)
TTh 11:30-1:20
sln: 18529

Topic: Ethical Issues in Reproductive and Genetic Technologies.

Scientific and technological advances in the areas of reproduction and genetics give us new means to shape the lives of our offspring. We now have an unprecedented ability to control not just whether and when we have children but also to create different family arrangements and decide what children we want to have. These advances thus present us with a variety of important ethical concerns surrounding the creation and alteration of human life. In this course, we will examine questions related to the right to reproduce and what it entails, normative notions of parenthood and how such notions shape and are shaped by new technological developments, the intelligibility and moral relevance of a distinction between treatment and enhancement, and the moral permissibility of intentionally altering the genetic makeup of future generations.

Prerequisites: One previous course in philosophy or permission of instructor.
TEXT: Assigned articles