Genética y Justicia: Tratar la enfermedad, respetar la diferencia

Abstract

The new possibilities opened up by scientific research, particularly in the area of genetic, raise hitherto unknown moral perplexities and, at the same time, do force us to rethink questions and redefine concepts which use to work adequately up to now. So, for example, regarding to theories of justice: we are used to having a relatively broad agreement on the concept of person, and the discussion was usually focused on the kind of goods which must be distributed to a given group of people. But the possibility of transforming people by changing their talents, and in this way, transforming some features of the population according to certain current criteria, opens up an important discussion insofar those transformations could be considered resources and, if so, been redistributed themselves. However, the fact that some sort of alterations could or, even more, should be made in order to achieve the good for future children embodies the risk consisting in the impoverishment and homogenization of the society, or the obliteration of valuable forms of life and culture. Since this incipient possibility arises paradoxes and disturbing threats, the rigorous reflection represents a basic indispensable critical tool.