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Selecting Children: The View Of Human Nature

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Humans are different from other members of the animal kingdom, varying greatly from even the closest relative in the genus homo, the chimpanzee. Both physical and nonphysical differences are easily noticed: chimps don’t have opposable thumbs, humans have less body hair, walk erect, have an articulate language and developed emotional capacity, etc. The collection of these distinguishers comprises human nature, which is defined as “the psychological and social qualities that characterize humankind, especially in contrast with other living things,” (Dictionary.com). Phrased another way, it is a sort of essence that contains traits shared by all humans and only humans that separates us from all other species. Human nature is considered so sacred, …show more content…

Genetic engineering has the potential to produce a less-than-human human (for instance a cockroach-human hybrid) so due to this possibility it should not be allowed. In Liao’s “Selecting Children” article he cites a quote from Bernard Williams saying “there are certain respects in which creatures are treated in one way rather than another simply because they belong to a certain category, the human species,” (Liao 982). This is called the Human Species View, a subcategory of the Human Nature View. Common objections to this view include that it endorses a ‘speciest’ attitude comparable to racism or sexism. This, however, is not the case. Instead, the view implies that people should treat the human species with extra respect since it is their own. Actions that reduce the humanness of the human species, like genetic engineering to create mentally disabled humans or human-animal hybrids, are not permitted because the superiority of humans is lost and a crime of disrespect is committed against the species by the species.
That being said, the human nature view, specifically the human species view, does not restrict all aspects of the practice. As long as a child maintains its humanness, the views “would not rule as impermissible using genetic engineering to select children with certain hair or eye colour,” (Liao 983). The human species view also accepts the conception of disabled children through genetic engineering because the children remain members of the species. To an extent I disagree with this

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