WHAT'S REALLY WRONG WITH GENETIC ENHANCEMENT: A SECOND LOOK AT OUR POSTHUMAN FUTURE

Yale Journal of Law and Technology Volume 6 Issue 1 Yale Journal of Law and Technology Article 2 2004 WHAT'S REALLY WRONG WITH GENETIC ENHANCEMENT: A SECOND LOOK AT OUR POSTHUMAN FUTURE DANIEL L. TOBEY Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.law.yale.edu/yjolt Part of the Computer Law Commons, Intellectual Property Law Commons, and the Science and Technology Law Commons Recommended Citation DANIEL L. TOBEY, WHAT'S REALLY WRONG WITH GENETIC ENHANCEMENT: A SECOND LOOK AT OUR POSTHUMAN FUTURE, 6 Yale J.L. & Tech (2004). Available at: https://digitalcommons.law.yale.edu/yjolt/vol6/iss1/2 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by Yale Law School Legal Scholarship Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Yale Journal of Law and Technology by an authorized editor of Yale Law School Legal Scholarship Repository. For more information, please contact . TOBEY: WHAT'S REALLY WRONG WITH GENETIC ENHANCEMENT ARTICLE WHAT'S REALLY WRONG WITH GENETIC ENHANCEMENT: A SECOND LOOK AT OUR POSTHUMAN FUTURE DANIEL L. TOBEY* I. II. III. IV. INTRODUCTION ................................................................... 56 THE POSSIBILITIES OF GENETIC ENHANCEMENT .................... 57 How TO EVALUATE NORMATIVE ETHICAL THEORIES ............. 60 THE HUMAN BOUNDARY: A CLOSER LOOK AT FUKUYAMA .... 68 A. B. 69 FA CTOR X ....................................................................... 72 1. CIRCULARITY AND INCOMPLETENESS ......................... 73 2. CONTINUUMS VERSUS GROUPS .................................. 75 3. CAPACITY FOR W HAT ............................................... 78 N ATURAL RIGHTS ........................................................... C. GENETICS AND FACTOR X ............................................... 81 D. FINAL THOUGHTS ON OUR POSTHUMAN FUTURE .............. 87 V. GENETICS, LAW, AND ECONOMICS ....................................... 90 A. COSTS W E W ON'T CONSIDER .......................................... 94 B. COSTS WE ARE NOT ALLOWED TO CONSIDER .................. 95 C. COSTS OF THE MARKET MECHANISM .............................. 97 VI. NOT HUMAN BOUNDARIES, BUT HUMAN ESSENCE ................. 103 Two VIEWS OF HUMAN LIFE ............................................ 106 THE PERFECTIONIST VIEW ................................................ 110 A. B. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. THE ARISTOTELIAN VIEW OF ACCOMPLISHMENT AND VIRTUE ................................. 113 AN ALTERNATE VIEW OF ACCOMPLISHMENT AND VIRTUE ................................. 116 GENETICS AND THE ARISTOTELIAN VIEW .................... 120 GENETICS AND THE DYNAMIC TENSION VIEW ............. 123 OBJECTIONS TO THE ARGUMENT AND RESPONSES ........ 126 SUMMARY OF THE PERFECTIONIST ACCOUNT .............. 128 AB Harvard College; JD Yale Law School. An earlier version of this article received the 2003 Benjamin Scharps Prize and the 2003 Margaret Gruter Prize from the Yale Law School. The author studies medicine at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. He would like to thank his family and Robert Burt. * Published by Yale Law School Legal Scholarship Repository, 2004 1 Yale Journal of Law and Technology, Vol. 6 [2004], Iss. 1, Art. 2 D. TOBEY C. WHAT'S REALLY WRONG THE LIBERAL VIEW .......................................................... 128 1. Two VIEWS OF LIBERALISM ........................................ 129 2. DIGNITARY LIBERALISM ............................................. 130 (a) D IGNITY D EFINED ................................................ 131 WHAT ARE WE TRYING TO PROTECT? ........ . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132 DIGNITARY LIBERALISM AND (b) 3. GENETIC ENHANCEMENT ........................................... 135 4. CONSEQUENCES OF THE SHIFT TO THE PREFERENCE-BASED VIEW .............................. 136 5. CONTRACTUAL LIBERALISM AND GENETIC ENHANCEMENT .................................... 141 SUMMARY OF THE AFFIRMATIVE CASE ............................. 143 D. E. F. THE POSTMODERN RESPONSE ........................................... 144 SUMMARY: GENETIC ENHANCEMENT TAKES US FROM THICK TO THIN HUMANITY .................... 147 G. H. LAW AND ECONOMICS REVISITED ..................................... 148 FUKUYAMA REVISITED ..................................................... 149 VII. POLICY: ENHANCEMENT VERSUS HEALING ............................ 150 A. FIRST PRINCIPLES: THE BASIS FOR REGULATING B. ENHANCEM ENT ............................................................... 150 NEED FOR A PRACTICAL STANDARD ................................. 152 ENHANCEMENT VERSUS THERAPY .................................... 153 C. 1. 2. NORMAL VERSUS ABNORMAL ...................................... 154 DISEASE VERSUS NON-DISEASE .................................... 156 D. FUNCTIONALIZING ENHANCEMENT VERSUS THERAPY ....... 157 E. THE CATEGORIES SHAPE THE PERCEPTIONS ...................... 158 V III. C ON CLU SION ......................................................................... 159 https://digitalcommons.law.yale.edu/yjolt/vol6/iss1/2 2 TOBEY: WHAT'S REALLY WRONG WITH GENETIC ENHANCEMENT YALE JOURNAL OF LAW & TECHNOLOGY 2003-2004 WHAT'S REALLY WRONG WITH GENETIC ENHANCEMENT: A SECOND LOOK AT OUR POSTHUMAN FUTURE DANIEL L. TOBEY This Article presents the case against genetic enhancement. It begins with a critiqueof Fukuyama's highly publicized work on enhancement. It then reconstructs the case for regulation, arguing that enhancement will undermine the most basic and universalsources of meaning and well-being in human life. The Article pays special attention to the law and economics scholarship, holding that the economic method will not detect certain types of harm to the human genome. The essay concludes with a policy solution that will preserve the benefits of genetic therapy while avoiding the harms of genetic enhancement. I. INTRODUCTION Should we allow ourselves to enhance the human species genetically? Answering no is surprisingly difficult. Many of us who oppose enhancement, often passionately, cannot express a secular theory of what exactly is at stake. Lauren Slater tells the story of a roomful of doctors at a bioethics convention who were paralyzed by one speaker, a physician who wanted to offer his patients wings. Everyone felt that something was deeply wrong, yet no one could give a satisfying account of what it was.1 Francis Fukuyama offers one explanation in his recent work, OurPosthuman Future.Fukuyama argues that genetic enhancement will undermine our system of human rights by disrupting the boundary that encloses all humans in a single group. Fukuyama concludes that we should limit genetic science to allow therapy but prohibit "enhancement" or non-therapeutic procedures.2 1 Lauren Slater, Dr. Daedalus, HARPERS, July 2001, at 57. I use this story for its metaphorical value. The physician in question is a plastic surgeon who imagined a mechanical, not genetic, (...truncated)