Transcript Saying goodbye

TED Talks
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http://www.ted.com/talks/barry_schwa
rtz_on_our_loss_of_wisdom.html
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vs41
JrnGaxc
Saying
goodbye...
The Battleground?
Clones
 Designer babies
 Spare parts babies
 Deaf babies for deaf
parents
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Natural Selection
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Carl Sagan
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5
RLU4-kySow&feature=related
Unnatural Selection?
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Who decides the future of the human
race?
Deaf child? A moral choice?
Ethics and embryology –
should deaf parents be allowed to
choose a deaf child?
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So, riddle me this: a deaf couple want a second child, and
because of the woman’s age they’ll probably need to use invitro fertilisation techniques. No problem so far … until you
find that the parents want to be able to select for a deaf
child, and the UK government’s recent embryology bill will
not allow them to do so.
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This is a textbook ethical dilemma, but it’s the sort of thing
that advances in reproductive technology and genetic
engineering are going to make more commonplace.
Jean-Paul Sartre
Freedom and morality…
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We are condemned to be free.
Existence precedes essence.
There is not a single one of our acts which
does not at the same time create an image
of man as we think he ought to be. To
choose to be this or that is to affirm at the
same time the value of what we choose.
Is there moral progress?
James Rachels (1941-2003)
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Thanks for
listening…
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Hope you enjoyed...
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See you on the 12th...
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oh...and thanks
for all the fish...