Procreation Ethics

Abstract

The central moral question in procreative ethics concerns the permissibility of procreation – whether it is always permissible, sometimes permissible, or never permissible. Most of the discussion in this area relates to the effects of procreation – whether it will be harmful either to the being who will be created or to society at large. Sometimes this is a function of the circumstances into which the child would be introduced. Some argue that a child should not be created when it will predictably have an unhappy life, or even if it is to suffer at all. Others focus on the social situation: it may be morally impermissible to have children when the world already has an unsustainable population. The possibility of new technologies for procreation has also provoked discussion: is it wrong to alter potential offspring through genetic engineering? What would the personal and social effects be? Would cloning for the purpose of creating a child be an unacceptable departure from traditional procreation, or should it be regarded as a useful innovation? The ethics of procreation is a developing and increasingly important topic.