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08/11/2005: "Media luvvy"

I've just been on the phone to The Herald about this announcement from the Human Fertilisation & Embryology Authority. As ever, they are looking for a fresh angle on the 'designer (sic) babies' story. What they got from me instead was my customary 'mad libertarian' spiel: if you want to avoid reproductive totalitarianism and the spectre of eugenics, then you avoid, at all costs, elevating the purported good of the species, or the race, or 'society' above the reproductive autonomy of individuals. There is a slippery slope in reproductive technology, but we take the first steps onto it when we start telling prospective parents that they have to do X, or are banned from doing Y, because the 'public good' demands it.

Replies: 3 Comments

Evidence China and population control. Men far outnumber woman due to the societal pressure for a male offspring.

Mind you girl children have been being abandoned to the elements in China for four millenia. The population control legislation merely shed some light on the issue.

Lusiphur said @ 08/11/2005 02:29 PM GMT

Ooh, the lass from The Herald just called me back to make sure they got my quote right. 'Scottish media in Fact-checking Shock!'

CJG said @ 08/11/2005 05:35 PM GMT

Well, I made the paper all right, although one sentence out of three phone conversations amounting to some 20 minutes hardly captures the multi-layered complexity (ahem) of my argument. Feel free to have a lookanyway.

CJG said @ 08/12/2005 08:14 AM GMT