The Ethics of Reproductive Genetics: Between Utility, Principles, and Virtues

263 Pages·2018·2.562 MB·English

by  Marta Soniewicka (ed.)

Philosophy and Medicine P&M128
Marta Soniewicka E ditor
The Ethics of
Reproductive
Genetics
Between Utility, Principles, and Virtues
Philosophy and Medicine
Volume 128
Founding Co-Editor
Stuart F. Spicker
Senior Editor
H. Tristram Engelhardt, Jr., Department of Philosophy, Rice University,
and Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, USA
Series Editor
Lisa M. Rasmussen, Department of Philosophy, University of North Carolina
at Charlotte, Charlotte, NC, USA
Assistant Editor
Jeffrey P. Bishop, Gnaegi Center for Health Care Ethics, Saint Louis University,
St. Louis, MO, USA
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Bowling Green, OH, USA
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New Orleans, LA, USA
Edmund Erde, University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (Retired),
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Columbia, SC, USA
Kevin Wm. Wildes, S.J., President, Loyola University, New Orleans, LA, USA
More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/6414
Marta Soniewicka
Editor
The Ethics of Reproductive
Genetics
Between Utility, Principles, and Virtues
Editor
Marta Soniewicka
Department of Philosophy of Law
and Legal Ethics
Jagiellonian University
Krakow, Poland
ISSN 0376-7418 ISSN 2215-0080 (electronic)
Philosophy and Medicine
ISBN 978-3-319-60683-5 ISBN 978-3-319-60684-2 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-60684-2
Library of Congress Control Number: 2017959720
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Acknowledgments
I owe special thanks to Professor Robert Audi for his extraordinary support and for
our philosophical discussions in Krakow which had an impact on my work. I would
like to also extend my thanks to Professor Thaddeus Metz for his encouragement, as
well as to Professor Roberto Andorno for his remarks on the general ideas which
framed the book. I would like to use this opportunity to extend my sincere thanks to
Professor George Annas for the inspiring time I had as a Fulbright scholar in Boston
when he suggested me to work on the ethics of reproductive genetics under his
supervision.
I am also grateful to Dr. Aeddan Shaw for his help in the linguistic edition of the
volume, as well as to Filip Bardziński for his technical editorial work.
The preparation of this volume was financed by the Polish National Science
Centre (Dec-2013/10/E/HS5/00157).
v
Contents
Part I Moral Theories Applied to Biomedicine
1 Ethical Theory and Moral Intuitions in Biomedical
Decision-Making ..................................................................................... 3
Robert Audi
2 Do Our Moral Judgements Need to Be Guided by Principles? .......... 23
Roberto Andorno
3 The Moral Philosophy of Genetic Counseling: Principles,
Virtues and Utility Reconsidered ........................................................... 33
Marta Soniewicka
4 A Bioethic of Communion: Beyond Care and the Four
Principles with Regard to Reproduction .............................................. 49
Thaddeus Metz
5 Parents, Special Obligations and Reproductive Genetics ................... 67
Wojciech Lewandowski
6 Moral Virtue and the Principles of Practical Reason .......................... 81
Adriana Warmbier
7 Context Counts – Bioethics in the Age of Globalization ..................... 93
Aeddan Shaw
8 Conscientious Objection of Health Care Workers
in the Context of Genetic Testing ........................................................... 103
Jakub Pawlikowski
9 Are There Unresolvable Dilemmas in Bioethics? ................................. 117
Barbara Chyrowicz
vii
viii Contents
Part II The Moral, Legal and Social Challenges
of Reproductive Genetics
10 Reproductive and Therapeutic Cloning ................................................ 131
Henning Rosenau
11 Germline Gene Therapy in the Era of Precise
Genome Editing: How Far Should We Go? .......................................... 157
Peter Sýkora
12 Gene Editing in Human Embryos. A Comment
on the Ethical Issues Involved ................................................................ 173
Iñigo De Miguel Beriain and Ana María Marcos del Cano
13 Geneticization and Bioethics: Ethical Dilemmas
in Genetic Counselling ............................................................................ 189
Ewa Baum and Jan Domaradzki
14 Technical and Ethical Limits in Prenatal
and Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis ................................................ 205
Małgorzata Karbarz
15 From Informed Choice to Distributed Decision-Making:
Ethnographic Tales from a Study on Prenatal
Testing in Denmark ................................................................................. 219
Nete Schwennesen
16 Legal and Cross-Cultural Issues Regarding the Termination
of Pregnancy: African Perspectives ....................................................... 241
Sylvester C. Chima
Contributors
Roberto Andorno is an associate professor at the Faculty of Law and research

fellow at the Institute of Biomedical Ethics, University of Zurich, Switzerland. He
is a former member of the UNESCO International Bioethics Committee. Dr.
Andorno has published extensively on various issues at the intersection of law and
bioethics, notably Bioética y Dignidad de la Persona (Madrid 2012) and Principles
of International Biolaw (Brussels 2014).
Robert Audi is John A. O’Brien professor of philosophy at the University of Notre

Dame (USA) and a past president of the American Philosophical Association and
the Society of Christian Philosophers. He is internationally known for contributions
to epistemology, ethics (especially on intuitionism and in political church–state
issues), and the theory of action. His books include The Structure of Justification
(Cambridge University Press, 1993); Religious Commitment and Secular Reason
(Cambridge University Press, 2000); The Architecture of Reason: The Structure and
Substance of Rationality (Oxford University Press, 2001); The Good in the Right: A
Theory of Intuition and Intrinsic Value (Princeton University Press, 2004); and
Means, Ends, and Persons: The Meaning and Psychological Dimensions of Kant’s
Humanity Formula (Oxford University Press, 2016).
Ewa Baum is an assistant professor at the Department of Philosophy of Medicine

and Bioethics, Faculty of Health Sciences, Poznan University of Medical Sciences,
Poland. She authored the book Stem Cells as a Bioethical Problem of Modern
Medicine and authored or coauthored (with M. Musielak and K. Pawlaczyk) dozens
of articles on ethical problems of the development of medicine, including “Utopian
trends in modern bioethics. Ethical aspects of research on and using stem cells”
(Bull. Trans. Univ. Brasov New Ser. Ser. B2 2005: 12(47) p 221–224), “Who is right
about legalization of organ trade?” (Prz. Filoz. Nowa Seria, 2012: R. 21, nr 2 (82),
s. 141–150), and “Levels of hepatocyte growth factor in serum correlate with qual-
ity of life in hemodialysis patients” (Int. J. Clin. Exp. Pathol. 2015:Vol. 8, nr 10, s.
13477–13,482).
ix
x Contributors
Sylvester C. Chima is an associate professor and head of the Programme of Bio &

Research Ethics and Medical Law, School of Public Health, Nelson R Mandela
School of Medicine, University of KwaZulu-Natal in Durban, South Africa. His
research interests concentrate on medical law, bioethics, human rights, and neuro-
pathology. He has authored numerous articles in international journals such as BMJ,
BMC Medical Ethics, Journal of General Virology, Human Biology, Nigerian
Journal of Clinical Practice, etc. He is the author/coauthor of three books on medi-
cal law, bioethics, and African health issues. His latest book is entitled A Primer on
Medical Law, Bioethics and Human Rights for African Scholars (Chimason
Educational Books, Durban, 2011).
Barbara Chyrowicz is a professor and chair of the Department of Applied Ethics,

Faculty of Philosophy, the John Paul II Catholic University in Lublin, Poland, and
the founding member of the Polish Bioethics Society. In 2013, she received the
Officer’s Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta. She published numerous articles
and books on ethics and bioethics, including Bioetyka i ryzyko. Argument “równi
pochyłej” w dyskusji wokół osiągnięć współczesnej genetyki (Lublin: Towarzystwo
Naukowe KUL, 2000), O sytuacjach bez wyjścia w etyce. Dylematy moralne, ich
natura, rodzaje i sposoby rozstrzygania (Kraków: Znak, 2008), and Bioetyka.
Anatomia Sporu (Kraków: Znak 2015).
Iñigo De Miguel Beriain is a senior research fellow at the Department of Public

Law, University of the Basque Country, Bilbao, Spain. His research has addressed
issues related to the philosophy of law, ethics of economy, bioethics, and biolaw. He
is the author of several articles and books, the latter including Matrix: La Humanidad
ante la Encrucijada (València: Tirant lo Blanch 2004) and El Embrión y la
Biotecnología: Un Análisis Etico-jurídico (Granada: Editorial Comares 2004). His
paper entitled “Bioethics and new Biotechnologies in Human Health” was awarded
with the International Prize by the “House of Representatives of the Principality of
Asturias-International Society of Bioethics (SIBI).”
Ana Maria Marcos del Cano is an accredited professor of philosophy of law at

the Faculty of Law of the UNED and the director of the Department of Legal
Philosophy. She authored numerous articles, chapters, and books on philosophy of
law, including La eutanasia: estudio filosófico-jurídico (Madrid: Librerías Marcial
Pons 1999).
Jan Domaradzki is an assistant professor of sociology at the Poznan University of

Medical Sciences. His current research includes social implications of new genet-
ics, geneticization of public discourse, and medicalization. He is the author of two
books in the field of the sociology of religion and several articles.
Małgorzata Karbarz is an assistant professor at the Institute of Biotechnology
and Basic Sciences, University of Rzeszow, Poland. Her research interests include
bioethics and social aspects of biotechnology and plant genetics. She authored and