Parental responsibility, autonomy and genetic enchancement.

Abstract

This report analyses the responsibilities and harms that are imposed upon parents when genetic enhancement is made institutionally available and shows that there is a counter-intuitive impact upon parental autonomy. The institutional availability of genetic enhancement may be a good thing and may increase autonomy. My thesis is that harm is caused to parents because of the negative implications that arise from the institutional availability of genetic enhancement: their autonomy may be diminished irrespective of their reasons for rejecting genetic enhancement.