Current debates about reproductive issues are an ethical minefield. Discussion about whether to create ‘three parent embryos’ is the latest in a long list of rapid medical and social changes that are pushing against our legal and ethical boundaries.
Society seems to flounder from one issue to the next, trying to find a way forward that is acceptable to all, with little to guide except something we call 'rights'.
Rights are meant to give us real guidance out how to go forward: 'I have the right to have a baby', 'to not have a baby', 'to have a baby without blemish', ‘to have a baby without any disease’, 'to have a baby at 50', 'to use a surrogate’, 'to die when I want'. The list goes on.
But appealing to so-called rights actually resolves little.
It doesn't take much common sense to realise that my 'rights' conflict and compete with other's rights: mother vs child, father vs mother, child vs sperm donor, child vs child, surrogate vs genetic parent vs child, patient vs doctor. The list goes on.
more
Philippa Taylor: The rights culture is a selfish dead end | The Conservative Woman
Society seems to flounder from one issue to the next, trying to find a way forward that is acceptable to all, with little to guide except something we call 'rights'.
Rights are meant to give us real guidance out how to go forward: 'I have the right to have a baby', 'to not have a baby', 'to have a baby without blemish', ‘to have a baby without any disease’, 'to have a baby at 50', 'to use a surrogate’, 'to die when I want'. The list goes on.
But appealing to so-called rights actually resolves little.
It doesn't take much common sense to realise that my 'rights' conflict and compete with other's rights: mother vs child, father vs mother, child vs sperm donor, child vs child, surrogate vs genetic parent vs child, patient vs doctor. The list goes on.
more
Philippa Taylor: The rights culture is a selfish dead end | The Conservative Woman