Should We Edit the Human Genome?

Crossposted from my substack . Procreative Beneficence and Genetic Enhancement 1. Introduction Imagine a world where everyone is healthy, intelligent, long living and happy. Intuitively this seems wonderful albeit unrealistic. However, recent scientific developments in genetic engineering, namely CRISPR/Cas bring the question into public discourse, how the genetic enhancement of humans should be evaluated morally. In 2001, when preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) and in vitro fertilisation (IVF), enabled parents to select between multiple embryos, Julian Savulescu introduced the principle of procreative beneficence (PPB), arguing that parents have the obligations to choose the child that is expected to have the best life [11]. In this essay I argue that accepting the PPB and the consequentialist principle (CP) that two acts with the same consequences are morally on par, commits one to accepting the parental obligation to genetically enhance their prospective children, i.e. embryos, a position Savulescu doesn’t explicitly endorse but I argue is committed too. As the argument I provide may seem like a slippery slope, the largest part of this essay is tasked with responding to a m