2017 SEM 1 PPE POLL OF THE WEEK (WEEK 4)

Great to see so many of you engaged with the polls - still time for the rest of you to respond!

I'd recommend taking 5 mins to check out the responses to the polls. What can you learn from your peers? Who made a good, convincing argument? Might you change your mind?

Here's next week's poll- in advance! Have a read and see what you think...and then respond when you've got your ideas together.

I've loaded it ahead of week 4 as I've also set an optional academic skills activity which is based on this same topic so it's going to be more helpful if you can consider this poll and then if you choose to do the optional feedback activity you'll have already covered the material needed to respond.

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Julian Savulescu is an ethics professor at Oxford University. He is interested in cloning, stem cell research and genetic moral enhancement.

He claims that if possible parents using in-vitro fertilization (IVF) have a responsibility to select the best children they can, given all of the relevant genetic information available to them.

At present parents using IVF can screen for conditions such as cystic fibrosis and Down's Syndrome.

Savulescu says the next step ought to be screening for 'personality flaws such as potential alcoholism, psychopathy and disposition to violence'. He argues that people have a moral obligation to select ethically better children. 'They are, after all, less likely to harm themselves and others.' 'If we have the power to intervene in the nature of our offspring — rather than consigning them to the natural lottery — then we should.'

Savulescu believes that society has a moral obligation to use genetic technologies to create 'better people'. What do you think?

It is proposed that where possible parents using IVF should use genetic technologies to enhance their offspring rather than leaving this to chance

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