The ethics of designer babies | Theodore Dalrymple, David Pearce & Güneş Taylor
40David Pearce, Theodore Dalrymple and Güneş Taylor debate the ethics of designer babies.
Watch the full debate at https://iai.tv/video/the-matrix-of-the-miracle?utm_source=YouTube&utm_medium=description
Babies need mothers. Or so we have imagined. Yet two breakthroughs in the last couple of years call this into question. Using only skin cells as their starting point researchers in Japan in 2017 have grown egg cells in the lab. While in the Netherlands scientists claim they are within a decade of creating an artificial womb.
Does this technology make babies in the lab a credible outcome and motherhood and birth potentially unnecessary? Will it lead to a dystopian future and a profound threat to family life and society as whole? Or should we welcome the technique as a means to enable infertile couples and gay men to have children and women to avoid the risks of pregnancy?
Philosopher and co-founder of the World Transhumanist Association David Pearce, social commentator Theodore Dalrymple, and biomedical researcher Güneş Taylor imagine the future of the family. Stephanie Hare hosts.
#TheodoreDalrymple #designerbabies #artificialwomb
David Pearce is a prominent figure within the transhumanism movement and one of the co-founders of the World Transhumanist Association, currently rebranded and incorporated as Humanity+. He approaches ethical issues from a lexical negative utilitarian perspective.
Anthony Daniels, also known by the pen name Theodore Dalrymple, is an English cultural critic, prison physician and psychiatrist. He has worked in a number of Sub-Saharan African countries as well as in the East End of London.
Güneş Taylor is a Postdoctoral Training Fellow in the Lovell-Badge Lab at the Francis Crick Institute, and science communicator. Güneş has appeared on the Guardian's Science Weekly podcast and in New Scientist.
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