Journal article

Stocking the genetic supermarket: Reproductive genetic technologies and collective action problems

C Gyngell, T Douglas

Bioethics | WILEY | Published : 2015

Open access

Abstract

Reproductive genetic technologies (RGTs) allow parents to decide whether their future children will have or lack certain genetic predispositions. A popular model that has been proposed for regulating access to RGTs is the 'genetic supermarket'. In the genetic supermarket, parents are free to make decisions about which genes to select for their children with little state interference. One possible consequence of the genetic supermarket is that collective action problems will arise: if rational individuals use the genetic supermarket in isolation from one another, this may have a negative effect on society as a whole, including future generations. In this article we argue that RGTs targeting h..

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University of Melbourne Researchers

Grants

Awarded by Wellcome Trust


Funding Acknowledgements

We would like to thank an audience at the Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics and two anonymous reviewers for feedback on earlier versions of this paper. Chris Gyngell would like to thank the Australian National University and the Australian Government for their funding. Thomas Douglas would like to thank the Uehiro Foundation on Ethics and Education and the Wellcome Trust (grant numbers WT087211 and 100705/Z/12/Z) for their funding.