7;s expectations? Will parents be able to test for genetic defects and opt for an abortion should their unborn child be afflicted? If parents can choose the sex of the child will this offset the ratio of women to men? These are all questions that need to be answered. Natural law ethicists and people who believe the divine command theory would oppose reproductive technology. In the case of the natural law ethicist, human mortals are altering what is natural and that is morally wrong. The divine command theory believes that whatever God has created is what is good, and since these children will be created in a lab they are therefore violating this principle. Act utilitarianism argues that we should “maximize the goodness for all people.” At first glance genetically altering fetuses to eradicate disease and undesired characteristics appears to benefit the human race and hence it appears to be morally correct. But we should take the future repercussions into consideration. What if eliminating disease and strengthening the human genome leads to overpopulation and consequently results in death and destruction of the planet?Aristotle’s theory of the “golden mean” argues that we should act in accordance with the mean, or the middle ground. Reproductive technology is morally deficient according to Aristotle’s theory because if society instituted this technology, then the result would be an abundance of “perfect people” and a deficiency of genetically flawed people, leaving no mean. The only school of thought that really seems to praise the moral implications of reproductive technology is the ethical egoist, which states, “One ought always maximize one’s own personal good.” A parent’s decision to have a genetically perfect child serves in their best interests and has moral standing. This can also be argued for the future child, it is in the child’s best in...
