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Other writers have put forth similarly vigorous defenses of reproductive freedom.
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Īs a libertarian, Nozick defended a laissez-faire approach to genetic modification, arguing that the government should not interfere with the market forces that influence procreation. And fully five different presidential committees have dealt with ethical issues raised by the genetic modification of human beings.
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Since the 1970s, numerous authors have examined the moral implications of "designer babies," and popular films, such as Blade Runner, GATACCA, and X-Men, have also explored the subject. Parents can design children to fulfill their own desires, hopes, and aspirations. If you want to have a child that will be male, athletic, musically gifted, heterosexual, 6'1" tall, with brown hair, blue eyes, and an IQ of 140, then you simply purchase the goods and services necessary to create that exact child. In the genetic supermarket, as Nozick portrays it, becoming a parent is like buying a new car. Four decades after the publication of that dystopia, Robert Nozick developed another futuristic scenario, the genetic supermarket, to prompt discussion of the moral implications of eugenics conducted not by the state, but at the level of individuals. In Brave New World, Aldous Huxley imagined a society in which the government manufactures five different human castes designed to perform different roles.
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