Genetic Enhancement of a Child’s Memory: A Search for a Private and Pub

Genetic Enhancement of a Childs Memory A attend for a Private and Public MoralityABSTRACT Prospects of human genetic modification raise the question of genetic enhancement of memory. A moral poser that takes into account the tension between the roles of p arnt and citizen on the question of genetically enhancing a childs memory is presented. Weaknesses of both moral liberalism and moral communitarianism atomic number 18 addressed a tyranny of a powerful minority of liberalism, while a tyranny of orthodoxy and a tyranny of perfectionism plague different forms of communitarianism. A stupefy is advanced that draws on the strengths of both a Rawlsian form of contractarianism and a moderate version of communitarianism. I argue that genetic enhancements of memory in children pose such(prenominal) serious wrongs and threats to general well-being that the practice should be decided from behind a Rawlsian veil of ignorance. With the cards down, as Ronald Green describes the veil of ignora nce, a sanctioned right to nondiscrimination on the basis of genotype would be negotiated. With this right in place, conflicts between the agnate role and the role of citizen would be managed by the negotiated prohibition of parental decisions genetically to enhance the memory of children. Let me imagine myself some years from now as a citizen and a parent who also happens to be a philosophy teacher facing the question of whether I should choose various enhancements for my young child. Orthodontics, music lessons, soccer leagues, and genetic enhancement of an average memory are among the practices I am considering. I soon discover an internal tension.Ronald Green, in an article called The Rawls Game, (Teaching Philosophy, 1986, 91, 51-60) provides an el... ...eligious intolerance, new definitions of what it means to be a human someone have been created. In a hypothetical, unanimous agreement to prohibit genetic enhancement of a childs memory I would join a citizenry that exerc ises parental autonomy and in the face of a volatile new technology defines a new way of understanding what it means to be a human parent. My choice as a parent to serve as a link between past and future human generations prompts me to play along a perspective of fairness in the application of this new technology a technology that incorporates self-interest and almsgiving but makes neither self-interest nor benevolence my primary motivation as a parent. I could tell a coherent story to my child if I were able to relate to that, with the cards down, hatful unanimously placed genetic enhancement of a childs average memory off the political agenda.