#15 Jeff McMahan: On the ethics of choosing our children's genes

In this episode, we speak with Dr. Jeff McMahan, Emeritus Sekyra and White’s Professor of Moral Philosophy at Oxford University, about whether germline gene editing is ever morally preferable to embryo selection and whether and when we should control the genetic outcomes of our children.

(00:00) Our introduction
(06:48) Interview begins
(10:06) Same-child choices and different-child choices
(27:24) Against the comparative view
(31:25) Against the impersonal view
(38:33) In favor of the two-tier view
(45:47) Implications for genetic counseling
(50:08) Other objections to gene editing
(51:36) Treatment versus enhancement
(56:55) Is it morally permissible to control our children’s genes?
(1:02:44) Disability and wellbeing
(1:07:50) The social model of disability
(1:21:09) Reproductive technologies and injustice

Used or referenced:

• Jeff McMahan and Julian Savulescu, “Reasons and Reproduction: Gene Editing and Genetic Selection”
• Jeff McMahan, “Causing Disabled People to Exist and Causing People to Be Disabled”
• Elizabeth Barnes, “Disability and Adaptive Preference”
• Jan Narveson, “Moral Problems of Population”
• Eric Lander et al., “Adopt a Global Moratorium on Heritable Genome Editing”
• Francis Collins, “NIH Director on Human Gene Editing: ‘We Must Never Allow Our Technology to Eclipse Our Humanity’”
• Inmaculada de Melo-Martin and Sara Goering, “Eugenics,” in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
• The Genetic Literacy Project’s Global Gene Editing Regulation Tracker: China and the United States
• Sara Reardon, “Gene Edits to ‘CRISPR Babies’ Might Have Shortened Their Life Expectancy”
• David Cyranoski and Heidi Ledford, “Genome-Edited Baby Claim Provokes International Outcry”
• Gary Marchant, “Global Governance of Human Genome Editing: What Are the Rules?”
• Rob Stein, “New US Experiments Aim to Create Gene-Edited Human Embryos”
• American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, Committee on Genetics, “Preimplantation Genetic Testing”
• Manuel Viotti, “Preimplantation Genetic Testing for Chromosomal Abnormalities: Aneup

Bio(un)ethical is a bioethics podcast written by Leah Pierson and Sophie Gibert, with editing and production by Ambedo Media (previous production support by Audiolift.co). Our music is written by Nina Khoury and performed by Social Skills. We are supported by a grant from Amplify Creati