Which “New Eugenics”? Expanding Access to ART, Respecting Procreative Liberty, and Protecting the Moral Equality of All Persons in an Era of Neoliberal Choice

Abstract

In The New Eugenics: Selective Breeding in an Era of Reproductive Technologies, Judith Daar (2017) advocates for increased access to assisted reproductive technologies (ART) and minimizes concerns about the potential “eugenic logic” of some procreative choices. Although Daar’s goal of expanded access is laudable, her argument suggests an unresolved tension between the moral equality of persons and individual reproductive freedom. Exploring that tension, this paper argues that efforts to expand access to ART must still grapple with the “eugenic mentality” of quality control that some forms of reproductive and genetic technologies enable.