Exam 2 - Glannon: “Genetic Enhancement” & Savulescu: “Genetic Interventions and the Ethics of Enhancement of Human Beings”

(includes 2 sections from Study Guide)

What does Glannon take to be the “main moral concern about genetic enhancement”? 

Briefly describe the disagreement between LeRoy Walters and Julie Gage Palmer and Walter Glannon.

What is Glannon’s argument against Walters and Palmer’s view? 

Glannon suggests that if there were universal availability of genetic treatment, giving everyone normal functioning, then, while perhaps not unfair, genetic enhancement would still be morally problematic. Why? 

What’s Glannon’s problem with genetically enhancing people with such noncompetitive goods as “altruism, generosity, and compassion”? 

Savulescu states that “enhancement is no luxury.” Instead, enhancement is “the very 

essence of what is necessary for a good human life.” (536) What does this statement tell us about Savulescu’s view of a typical human life? Do you agree with him? 

What is one way Savulescu responds to what Glannon takes to be the main moral concern about genetic enhancement? 

Responses to Glannon’s problem with genetically enhancing such noncompetitive goods as altruism, generosity, and compassion can be found in the sections “The Perfect Child, Sterility, and Loss of the Mystery of Life” and “Against Human Nature.” How does one of these responses go?