Liberalism and Human Genetic Enhancement
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Abstract
In this paper, I address the familiar argument that heritable genome editing will lead to a dystopian future in which there are two classes of human beings: an elite with enhanced mental and physical abilities and a vast underclass of ordinary humans who do not enjoy the advantages of genetic enhancement technologies. Contrary to previous discussions, however, I assume that this development takes place in a decent, liberal democratic state. This allows ideas from political theory to be applied to the argument. I begin by describing a possible pathway to the dystopian future, building on the ideas of knowledge resistance, social distrust, and cognitive biases that lead a large part of the population to reject beneficial genetic technology. Then I ask: How should a liberal state respond to the resulting inequalities? Does liberal political theory have the resources to give us some guidance? I examine the issues from the perspective of both distributive and relational egalitarianism.
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