Andrew Incandela Dr.

Erin Dietel-McLaughlin Multimedia Writing and Rhetoric, Section # 9 8 November 2013

I am writing a paper about genetically engineered humans, or designer babies. This topic is extremely interesting to me as I plan to go into medicine in the future and I may have to deal with the issues mentioned in this paper. Although the technology to genetically enhance people is not fully developed yet, many are very optimistic that it will become reality within our lifetimes. My paper will focus on the ethical, social, and political impacts that this will have on society. To do this, I will need to know what exactly the scientific methods and outcomes of these procedures will be, as well as how they could be viewed from an ethical perspective, and how they could potentially impact our society. Once I have obtained this information, I plan to apply it to Notre Dame by arguing for a specific course of action the university should take in response to this developing technology.

1. Buchanan, Allen E. Better Than Human: The Promise and Perils of Enhancing Ourselves. New York: Oxford UP, 2011. Print

This book provides background information on the topic of genetic engineering, and discusses the positive and negative impacts of genetic engineering on humans. However, the author is obviously in favor of allowing genetic enhancements. Much like my paper, this book is

meant to be viewed by the public who will be faced with these issues in the near future. The author says it is a reformatted version of a previous book he wrote, which was intended more for scholars in the subject. The book focuses more on the moral and social issues than the science behind it, as his previous book did. The book provides an overview of the subject, talking about the moral aspects of the situation as well as the social and economic impacts. The author provides several arguments against genetic engineering, and then refutes these arguments using his own evidence and reasoning. This book will be useful because it provides some very good arguments for genetic engineering, which I can respond to in my paper. It also offers some interesting social impacts of the technology which I had not previously though of. This is one of the few sources I have found whos author seams to strongly agree with genetic engineering, so some of my stronger counterarguments should come from this source.

2. United States. Congress. House. Genetics and Other Human Modification Technologies: Sensible International Regulation or a New Kind of Arms Race? : Hearing before the Subcommittee on Terrorism, Nonproliferation, and Trade of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, House of Representatives, One Hundred Tenth Congress, Second Session, June 19, 2008. Washington: U.S. G.P.O., 2008. Print.

This is a transcript of a hearing before the Committee On Foreign Affairs in the House of Representatives. The transcript is meant to serve as a public record of what was discussed on that day. It provides the details of a discussion about Genetic Engineering, but from a foreign and domestic policy perspective. The participants argue whether the use of genetic enhancement will be beneficial to the world at large, or will it create a new kind of arms race between countries,

ultimately leading to more conflict? If The United States says they will not participate, will other countries follow? Some committee members propose solutions for regulating the technology worldwide as well as prospective projects they should fund or not fund. This source is different than most of my other sources because it provides a view of how this technology would affect us on the largest of scales, while many of my other sources focus on much smaller scales. I can use this source to give my argument a different perspective. There is also a great quote from one of the speakers that lends to the importance of the topic: A completely unregulated international policy environment surrounding these promethean capabilities will ultimately delegitimize critically important research, destabilize international affairs, and potentially harm both our country and the human race at large.

3. Chapman, Audrey R., and Mark S. Frankel, eds. Designing Our Descendants: The Promises and Perils of Genetic Modifications. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UP, 2003. Print.

This is a collection of chapters written by different authors of different professions. It is meant to provide a variety of viewpoints on the topic of genetic engineering. There is a section explaining in depth all the different kinds of genetic manipulations and the procedures for those, followed by a section of chapters exploring the ethical and religious aspect of the technology, and finally a section written by lawyers and policy analysts discussing the political aspect of the technology. These chapters are meant to generally inform the public about the issues, and are written in response to the recent and future breakthroughs in gene modification technologies. This, like the previous source, gives opinions from people outside of scientists and philosophers, which can help provide an argument on the practicality of this technology. This source is also helpful in that it is one of the few sources providing specific examples of different kinds of gene

modification techniques. Specifically, there are kinds of technology mentioned in the book that would allow scientists to cure certain diseases in embryos by manipulating their genetic makeup. I plan to argue that this is one kind of research Notre Dame should support and fund.

4. Berry, Roberta M. The Ethics of Genetic Engineering. London: Routledge, 2007. Print.

This book identifies some of the main proponents of the various arguments for or against genetic engineering. It is meant to help people who are having trouble forming opinions about the subject matter get a better idea of the issues and hopefully form a more educated opinion. The book does this by identifying several assumptions made by people of both opinions and how these assumptions shape our thinking. The author then analyzes the topic from three major ethical viewpoints: Utilitarianism, Deontology, and Virtue Ethics, eventually arguing that Virtue Ethics is the best way to view this dilemma This will be helpful because I have noticed that most of the sources I have only look at the situation through a Utilitarian perspective. This is one of the only source that even mentions Virtue Ethics. The author talks a lot about the dignity of the human person and how it relates to this topic, which will also be helpful.

5. Chadwick, Ruth F. "Gene Therapy." The Concise Encyclopedia of the Ethics of New Technologies. San Diego, CA: Academic, 2001. 123-46. Print.

This encyclopedia covers a wide range of topics in emerging technologies. It is a general source of knowledge about many different topics. It seams to outline many of the arguments that my other sources go into great depth with. It never argues a specific viewpoint, but gives information about the different arguments surrounding many of these new technologies. This

will be useful for identifying arguments and information I would like to know more about. Like The Ethics of Genetic Engineering, this source also mentioned Virtue Ethics as a valid way of looking at genetic engineering. On top of this, it also explains several other ethical theories that I have not seen in any of my other sources. The encyclopedia has a fairly large section on gene therapy, or curing diseases using various genetic techniques, which is the kind of technology I plan to support in my paper. This will be the only direct source of information that will be helpful for writing this paper, as it does not go into great depth for any of the other topics, but I can use this broad set of information to find what I would like to research further.

6. Avise, John C. The Hope, Hype & Reality of Genetic Engineering. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2004. Print.

The purpose of this source seams to be to discuss the various applications of genetic engineering and how they relate to each other. It talks about several different applications of genetic engineering, including various uses pertaining to agriculture and animals, before focusing on how this technology pertains to people. The book describes some of the potentially lifesaving aspects of gene modification technologies. The book compares these methods to just another form of medicine, which in some sense they are, but also raises questions about their morality. The author investigates these in detail. The book also gives new details about the scientific methods used by doctors, which other sources did not talk about. This book will be useful in gaining a better understanding of the technology itself and the science behind it.