Procreative Justice and genetic selection for skin colour

Area of Science:

• Bioethics
• Reproductive Ethics
• Social Justice

Background:

• Societal racism and colorism create disadvantages for individuals with darker skin.
• Existing reproductive ethics frameworks struggle to explain moral objections to selecting lighter skin in such contexts.
• Intuition suggests strong moral reasons against selecting lighter skin when darker skin is disadvantageous.

Purpose of the Study:

• To analyze the moral permissibility of genetically selecting embryos for lighter skin in societies with racism and colorism.
• To develop a new ethical principle that addresses reproductive choices in contexts of racial and color injustice.
• To provide a compelling rationale for the intuition against selecting lighter skin in disadvantageous social environments.

Main Methods:

• Philosophical analysis of existing procreative principles.
• Development of a new ethical principle, 'Procreative Justice'.
• Argumentation based on the concept of completing race or color injustice through reproductive selection.

Main Results:

• Existing procreative principles are inadequate to fully account for moral objections to selecting lighter skin in racist contexts.
• Selecting lighter skin in such contexts can be understood as completing an instance of race or color injustice.
• A new principle, Procreative Justice, is proposed, positing moral reasons to avoid completing such injustices.

Conclusions:

• Reproductive choices, including genetic selection, have ethical implications related to social justice.
• The principle of Procreative Justice suggests a moral obligation to avoid perpetuating race and color injustices through reproductive decisions.
• These moral reasons, while potentially overridden, retain significant normative force in guiding reproductive choices.