The advance of genetics continues apace, but will it be accompanied by advances in ethics?

The advance of genetics continues apace, but will it be accompanied by advances in ethics? There is cause for skepticism. Fertility doctors at Baylor College of Medicine have announced a new clinical study in which parents will be allowed to choose the sex of their children. Participation will be limited to couples who already have one child and seek to "balance" their families with a child of the opposite sex. It is easy enough to see how the wide-scale application of this technique, unfettered by eligibility criteria, could be harmful. Consider China, where the selective abortion of unborn daughters has led to a socially destabilizing imbalance in the ratio of men to women. Consequentialist analysis does not, however, get to the heart of the problem with techniques such as that to be offered at Baylor: What we should really be worried about is the assumption that certain kinds of people are more deserving of existence than others.