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E-book
Author Murphy, Timothy F., 1955-

Title Ethics, sexual orientation, and choices about children / Timothy F. Murphy
Published Cambridge, MA : MIT Press, 2012

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Description 1 online resource (195 pages)
Series Basic bioethics
Basic bioethics.
Contents The controversy : parents and their children -- The controversy goes mainstream -- A genetic study raises the stake -- Book reports, mostly -- In defense of trait selection -- More debate -- Beyond rights -- Not a few last words -- Appendix: arguments for and against prenatal interventions
Summary Parents routinely turn to prenatal testing to screen for genetic or chromosomal disorders or to learn their child's sex. What if they could use similar prenatal interventions to learn (or change) their child's sexual orientation? Bioethicists have debated the moral implications of this still-hypothetical possibility for several decades. Some commentators fear that any scientific efforts to understand the origins of homosexuality could mean the end of gay and lesbian people, if parents shy away from having homosexual children. Others defend parents' rights to choose the traits of their children in general and see no reason to treat sexual orientation differently. In this book, Timothy Murphy traces the controversy over prenatal selection of sexual orientation, offering a critical review of the literature and presenting his own argument in favor of parents' reproductive liberty. Arguing against commentators who want to restrict the scientific study of sexual orientation or technologies that emerge from that study, Murphy proposes a defense of parents' right to choose. This, he argues, is the only view that helps protect children from hurtful family environments, that is consistent with the increasing powers of prenatal interventions, and that respects human futures as something other than accidents of the genetic lottery
Analysis PHILOSOPHY/Ethics & Bioethics
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index
Notes English
Subject Homosexuality -- Genetic aspects.
Sexual orientation -- Research -- Moral and ethical aspects
Prenatal influences.
Prenatal diagnosis.
Human genetics -- Moral and ethical aspects.
Bioethics.
Prenatal Diagnosis
MEDICAL -- Ethics.
Bioethics
Homosexuality -- Genetic aspects
Human genetics -- Moral and ethical aspects
Prenatal diagnosis
Prenatal influences
Form Electronic book
ISBN 9780262305822
0262305828