Volume 69 Number 5 October 2002	back to contents

Genetics and Education: The Ethics of Shaping Human Identity	312-316
Vardit Ravitsky, M.A.

Ph.D. Candidate, Bar Ilan University, Israel, Graduate Program in Bioethics, Philosophy Department, Bar Ilan University, 52900 Ramat Gan, Israel.

Address all correspondence to Vardit Ravitsky, Philosophy Department, Bar Ilan University, 52900 Ramat Gan, Israel.

This paper is based on research done toward a Ph.D. dissertation, supported by Bar Ilan University’s Doctoral Fellowship of Excellence Program. The dissertation advisor is Dr. Noam Zohar.

This paper was presented in April 2001 at the Oxford-Mount Sinai Consortium on Bioethics and Social Responsibility, at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, NY, and updated as of May 3, 2002.

ABSTRACT

This paper suggests an analogy between education and genetic interventions as means of shaping the identity of children and future adults. It proposes to look at issues discussed in the philosophy of education as a possible source of insight for ethical guidelines regarding future genetic interventions. The paper focuses on situations of conflict between parents and state regarding the authority to determine the child’s best interests. It describes the current formulation of the conflict in the literature as lacking the crucial element of the child’s right to a cultural identity. It argues that this element is a necessary component in an ethical analysis of the child’s best interests in a multicultural, liberal society which respects diversity. The paper therefore proposes a better model for the moral evaluation of identity-shaping decisions and offers some implications of this model for genetics.

KEYWORDS

Identity, genetic interventions, behavioral genetics, children, education, culture, liberalism, autonomy, diversity.

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