PALGRAVE STUDIES IN ETHICS AND PUBLIC POLICY Series Editor: Thom Brooks THE ETHICS OF CHOOSING CHILDREN Simon Reader Palgrave Studies in Ethics and Public Policy Series Editor Thom Brooks Durham Law School Durham University Durham UK Palgrave Studies in Ethics and Public Policy offers an interdisciplinary platform for the highest quality scholarly research exploring the relation between ethics and public policy across a wide range of issues including abortion, climate change, drugs, euthanasia, health care, immigration and terrorism. It will provide an arena to help map the future of both theoretical and practical thinking across a wide range of interdiscipli- nary areas in Ethics and Public Policy. More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/14631 Simon Reader The Ethics of Choosing Children Simon Reader Keele University Newcastle-under-Lyme, UK Palgrave Studies in Ethics and Public Policy ISBN 978-3-319-59863-5 ISBN 978-3-319-59864-2 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-59864-2 Library of Congress Control Number: 2017943660 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2017 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. 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Cover illustration: © John Rawsterne/patternhead.com Printed on acid-free paper This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by Springer Nature The registered company is Springer International Publishing AG The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland For Alice Mary Reader Acknowledgements This book is based on research carried out at Lancaster University, for which I am grateful to acknowledge funding from the Arts and Humanities Research Council. Prior to this, postgraduate study funded by the Wellcome Trust set me on the road to this point, so I extend thanks to both funding bodies for making this possible. Thanks also to Brendan George at Palgrave Macmillan for investing in me, and to April James for her cheerful advice and correspondence. Whilst at Lancaster I benefited from the guidance, expertise and reas- surance of many colleagues, among whom I’d like to extend particular thanks to Alison Stone for her kindness, time and wisdom. I should also like to acknowledge the support of David Archard, along with the con- tributions of Mairi Levitt, Garrath Williams, Gavin Hyman, Imogen Tyler and Linda Woodhead at Lancaster University. I’m also grateful to the Gender and Women’s Studies community who offered me a second home at Lancaster—and to new friends and colleagues for the warm welcome at Keele University. Some incredible friends set me on this path and kept me steady when I needed it, and so I owe them all a debt of gratitude. In particular, Steve Crawford, who persuaded me to give academia another go, Andy vii viii Acknowledgements and Maja Smith-Bugge, Rachel and Fred Binley, the Manchester crowd (who know who they are) and Captains Ali Hanbury, Rachael Eastham and Jez Mort for keeping me afloat. Thanks also to the Marketing Team at the University of Cumbria for being such good company and putting up with me for a year. I am thankful to have a wonderful family, who have been an unwa- vering source of strength, support, love, joy and encouragement: my incredible, loving parents Christine and John Reader; Kate, John, Finn and Lucy; Tom, Steph and Maxwell. Likewise, huge thanks also to my godfather Andrew Buckley, mother-in-law Jennifer Boon, and to Ben, Erin and Izobel, I am so grateful for your support. I’m fortunate enough to have two formidable grandmothers in Mary Reader and in Florence Brierley, who provided a haven and another home in the north for so many years. I’d also like to name my late grandfather Eric Brierley, as an abiding influence, example and inspiration. All of this is possible because of one man: my patient, talented, inspi- rational husband Russell Reader. His faith, passion, intelligence, love and gumption are the reasons any of this got done. All of the flaws in this book are mine; anything of worth or quality in the pages that fol- low I dedicate to him. Contents 1 Bioethical Burdens of Proof 1 2 Gift and Beneficence 29 3 Creation Lottery and Mother Trouble 55 4 The Maternal Gift of Life 81 5 Natality and Generations 107 Index 137 ix 1 Bioethical Burdens of Proof Abstract Modern and developing forms of selective reproduction have created new procreative choices for prospective parents which pit inclu- sive social values against personal parental preferences for one’s own child. A liberal eugenic current of thought has become predominant in mainstream bioethics, commending the prenatal selection of one’s children, where possible, over wider social or moral concerns about the nature of the world this creates. This opening chapter accounts for the development of a liberal eugenic orthodoxy, detailing the presumptions of liberty, moral considerability and the parity of genetic and environ- mental influences that support a permissive procreative liberty. Keywords Bioethics · Reproduction · Liberty · Choice · Selection Introduction In one of the most remarkable books of recent years Far from the Tree (2012), psychologist and writer Andrew Solomon detailed his research with over three hundred families in which parents had been profoundly challenged by the exceptional conditions of their children. From autism © The Author(s) 2017 1 S. Reader, The Ethics of Choosing Children, Palgrave Studies in Ethics and Public Policy, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-59864-2_1