[Austin O'Connor] As we began to discuss our case on optics enhancement we began, as most of these discussions do, asking is it ethical to make enhancements to ourselves. I believe some of us said yes without restriction but others of us felt that some enhancements were acceptable but that some are too extreme. At which point we began to ask if these eye enhancements we were discussing were cosmetic or to improve quality of life. If they were for enhanced quality of life then it seems these extreme means would be well worth it. We then began to discuss the social justice aspect in enhancement, asking whether it is fair because these types of procedures would most likely not be covered by insurance and therefore would come out of pocket so only the rich would be able to have such procedures. We also asked at what point does these types of enhancement change your nature (god-given or nature given depending on your beliefs).
We also discussed being able to select traits for your children to create so called designer babies. Someone raised the question about if it could create animosity between parent and child. Or perhaps a parent selected a trait to specifically keep their children from doing something? For example the parents do not want their child to play basketball for some reason so they make them short and make it so they cannot jump very high or something like that. This type of genetic selectivity begs the question would parents just use this as a tool to create what they want or what they wish they could have been instead of a new unique human life.
I'm sorry that this post is delayed.
Unfortunately I was not there for this discussion. I of course believe that procedures should be allowed to enhance the eyes when vision is affected. The issue of course though, is if it should be allowed to enhance the eyes even when vision is not an issue, but just to enhance the appearance. These procedures have existed for a long time for other areas of the body, but I suppose the issue with the optics enhancement is the risk compared to other cosmetic procedures/changes. I also feel like in some cases of cosmetic procedures, the procedure is done in an attempt to help one's self-esteem, I could not find many reasons as to why one's eyes/eye color would affect self-esteem. Anyway, I suppose I ultimately believe, like usual, that it is up to the person affected. If they want to take the risk, or make changes to "what God gave them," then let them do so. They're the ones paying for it.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Amber, I feel like the choice to get surgeries to change any body part should be allowed if the individual wants to pay for it.
ReplyDeleteAs for the parents choosing traits for their children I am not quite sure. On the one hand, it would be great to be able to choose for children not to have diseases, stunted characteristics, or odd mutations, but I'm not so sure about choosing eye color, height, hair color, etc. I can't decide whether or not I believe that dictating a child's appearance would detract a significant amount from his or her individuality or not, but I think it would definitely affect it some, and I'm just not sure if I'm okay with that.