The Moral Failings of Bioethics

from Brendan P. Foht, The New Atlantis
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A century after the heyday of eugenics, morally obtuse advocates for human enhancement, along with a collection of libertarians and assorted cranks, continue to hold out hope for its return in a redeemed form, one that is voluntary and medical rather than state-controlled and racist. While they posture as hard-nosed technocrats or bold advocates of reproductive freedom, the schemes they endorse are poorly thought through and plainly inspired by the crazed dreams of the original eugenics movement. Their shallow view of the moral problems posed by eugenic control-- which for them begin and end at the possibility of state coercion-- ignores the many ways that prejudice and social pressure can also shape the decisions of parents. And their outlook offers no sense whatsoever that the transformation of procreation into a manufacturing process, subject to strict quality control, might undermine the unconditional love we expect and value between parents and their children.

In [this] vision of the future, eugenic control is exercised by parents, but under the gently paternalistic nudging of governments or health insurance bureaucracies. Such control is not exercised for grandiose projects of transforming the human species, but is rather just another technocratic set of market-oriented reforms to human reproductive choices, meant to help bend the cost curve. It's a truly bleak vision of the future, where compassion for the sick is replaced by cold, efficient selection, and where moral clarity is replaced by a cloying relativism.
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The entire article, "While Bioethics Fiddles" can be read here.