Ethics, sexual orientation, and choices about children [[electronic resource] /] / Timothy F. Murphy

• Record Nr.: UNINA9910464541803321
• Autore: Murphy Timothy F. <1955->
• Pubbl/distr/stampa: Cambridge, MA, : MIT Press, c2012
• ISBN: 1-283-62983-6; 0-262-30582-8; 9786613942289
• Descrizione fisica: 1 online resource (195 p.)
• Collana: Basic bioethics
• Disciplina: 176/.4
• Soggetti: Homosexuality - Genetic aspects; Sexual orientation - Research - Moral and ethical aspects; Prenatal influences; Prenatal diagnosis; Human genetics - Moral and ethical aspects; Bioethics; Electronic books.
• Lingua di pubblicazione: Inglese
• Formato: Materiale a stampa
• Livello bibliografico: Monografia
• Note generali: Description based upon print version of record.
• Nota di bibliografia: Includes bibliographical references and index.
• Nota di contenuto: The controversy -- 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.
• Sommario/riassunto: 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.