Procreative beneficence and the prospective parent
by
Herissone-Kelly P.
Centre for Professional Ethics,
University of Central Lancashire,
Preston, PR1 2HE, UK.
pnherissone-kelly@uclan.ac.uk
J Med Ethics. 2006 Mar;32(3):166-9.

ABSTRACT

Julian Savulescu has given clear expression to a principle-that of "procreative beneficence"-which underlies the thought of many contemporary writers on bioethics. The principle of procreative beneficence (PPB) holds that parents or single reproducers are at least prima facie obliged to select the child, out of a range of possible children they might have, who will be likely to lead the best life. My aim in this paper is to argue that prospective parents, just by dint of their being prospective parents, are in fact not obliged to act on PPB. That is, there is something about their filling the role of prospective parents that exempts them from selecting the child with the best life. I urge that it is more realistic to view prospective parents as bound by a principle of acceptable outlook, which holds that they ought not to select children whose lives will contain an unacceptable amount of suffering.

Biohappiness
Genospirituality
Julian Savulescu
Private eugenics
'Designer babies'
Procreative liberty
Personal genomics
Genetic enhancement
Ashkenazi intelligence
Eugenics before Galton
Scandanavian eugenics
The literature of eugenics
Human self-domestication
Germline genetic engineering
Mood genes and human nature
Preimplantation genetic diagnosis
Beneficence, determinism and justice
A life without pain? Hedonists take note'
'The Principle of Procreative Beneficence'

Refs
and further reading

HOME
Resources
Wireheading
BLTC Research
nootropic.com
Superhappiness?
Utopian Surgery?
The Good Drug Guide
The Abolitionist Project
The Hedonistic Imperative
The Reproductive Revolution
MDMA: Utopian Pharmacology
Critique of Huxley's Brave New World