Luck, genes, and equality

Journal of Law, Medicine and Ethics

Volumn 35, Issue 4, 2007, Pages 712-726

  Fox, Dov ^a  

^a KEBLE COLLEGE   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

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EID: 36849020959     PISSN: 10731105     EISSN: 1748720X     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1111/j.1748-720X.2007.00193.x     Document Type: Conference Paper

References (79)

1. J. Rawls, A Theory of Justice (Cambridge : Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1999 at 92.
2. D. Fox The Illiberality of Liberal Eugenics Ratio 20, No. 1 (2007 1 25.
3. While "no one deserves his greater natural capacity nor merits a more favorable starting place in society," Rawls writes, "it does not follow that one should eliminate these distinctions." See Rawls, supra note 1, at 102.
4. M. Sandel, Liberalism and the Limits of Justice (Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 1982 at 74.
5. Robert Adams was the first to raise this so-called "Non-Identity Problem" in his "Existence, Self-Interest, and the Problem of Evil," Nous 13, No. 1 (1979 53 65. Derek Parfit elaborated notably on the paradox of harm to future persons in his Reasons and Persons (Oxford : Clarendon Press, 1984 at 351-379.
6. W. Glannon Genes, Embryos and Future People Bioethics 12, No. 3 (1998 187 211, at 193 citing, J. Glover Future People, Disability, and Screening in P. Laslett and J. Fishkin, eds., Justice Between Age Groups and Generations (New Haven : Yale University Press, 1992 127 143, at 141-142.
7. See J. Narveson Moral Problems of Population Monist 57, No. 1 (1973 62 86, at 65-66. Narveson draws on ideas developed in Rawls, supra note 1, at 62-64, 74-77, 266 267.
8. See Rawls, supra note 1, at 54.
9. A. Buchanan et al., From Chance to Choice (Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2000 at 84.
10. Id., at 80-81.
11. Id., at 80.
12. J. Rawls, Political Liberalism (New York : Columbia University Press, 1993 at 58-65, 134-143, 191-194.
13. See Buchanan, supra note 9, at 79.
14. Id., at 101.
15. Id., at 174. Fritz Allhoff makes a similar argument in his Germ-Line Genetic Enhancements and Rawlsian Primary Goods Kennedy Institute of Ethics Journal 15, No. 1 (2005 39 56, at 50.
16. L. Temkin Egalitarianism Defended Ethics 113, No. 3 (2003 764 783, at 770-771.
17. The term "luck egalitarian" was coined by Elizabeth Anderson in her "What Is the Point of Equality?" Ethics 109, No. 2 (1999 287 337.
18. See R. Dworkin What is Equality? Part 1: Equality of Welfare Philosophy and Public Affairs 10, No. 3 (1981 185 246
19. G. A. Cohen On the Currency of Egalitarian Justice Ethics 99 No. 4 (1989 906 44
20. R. Arneson Equality and Equal Opportunity for Welfare Philosophical Studies 56, No. 1 (1989 77 93.
21. See Rawls, supra note 1, at 65-73 J. Raz, Morality of Freedom (Oxford : Oxford University Press, 1986 at 217-44 R. Arneson Luck Egalitarianism and Prioritarianism Ethics 110, No. 2 (2000 339 49.
22. R. Crisp Equality, Priority, and Compassion Ethics 113, No. 4 (2003 745 63 H. Frankfurt Equality as a Moral Ideal Ethics 98, No. 1 (1987 21 43 A. Rosenberg Equality, Sufficiency, and Opportunity in the Just Society Social Philosophy and Policy 12, No. 2 (1995 54 71.
23. G. A. Cohen Amartya Sen's Unequal World New Left Review 1, No. 203 (1994 117 29, at 119.
24. See Frankfurt, supra note 20, at 21.
25. C. Farrelly Genes and Equality Journal of Medical Ethics 30, No. 6 (2004 587 92.
26. D. Parft Equality and Priority Ratio 10, No. 3 (1997 202 21, at 217-19.
27. See Rawls, supra note 1, at 92.
28. L. Temkin, Inequality (Oxford : Oxford University Press, 1993 at 282.
29. R. Rousseau, On the Social Contract, D. Cress, trans. and ed Indianapolis : Hackett, 1983 at 46-7; Aristotle, The Politics, E. Barker, trans. and ed. (London: Oxford University Press, 1946): at 180-82, both cited in. M. Sandel, Democracy's Discontent: America in Search of a Public Philosophy (Cambridge : Harvard University Press, 1998 at 330.
30. See D. Fox Silver Spoons and Golden Genes: Genetic Engineering and the Egalitarian Ethos American Journal of Law and Medicine 33, No. 4 (forthcoming 2007).
31. See K. Vonnegut Harrison Bergeron in Welcome to the Monkey House (New York : Delacort Press, 1950 at 7-13 M. Rothbard Egalitarianism and the Elites Review of Austrian Economics 8, No. 2 (1995 39 60 A. Flew, The Politics of Procrustes: Contradictions of Enforced Equality (Buffalo : Prometheus Books, 1981).
32. See Rawls, supra note 1, at 64.
33. Id., at 65.
34. M. Mehlman The Law of Above Averages: Leveling the New Genetic Enhancement Playing Field Iowa Law Review 85, No. 5 (2000 517 93.
35. E. Parens The Goodness of Fragility: On the Prospect of Genetic Technologies Aimed at the Enhancement of Human Capacities Kennedy Institute of Ethics Journal 5, No. 2 (1995 141 153, at 146.
36. J. Botkin and M. Mehlman, Access to the Genome: The Challenge to Equality (Washington, D.C. : Georgetown University Press, 1998 at 126-28.
37. J. Harris, Wonderwoman and Superman: The Ethics of Human Biotechnology (Oxford : Oxford University Press, 1992 at 234.
38. See Botkin and Mehlman, supra note 34, at 127.
39. R. Lindsay Enhancements and Justice: Problems in Determining the Requirements of Justice in a Genetically Transformed Society Kennedy Institute of Ethics Journal 15, No. 1 (2005 3 38, at 12.
40. C. Farrelly The Genetic Difference Principle American Journal of Bioethics 4, No. 2 (2004 W21 W28
41. S. Goering Gene Therapies and the Pursuit of a Better Human Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics 9, No. 3 (2000 330 41
42. D. Resnik Human Genetic Engineering and Social Justice: A Rawlsian Approach Social Theory and Practice 23, No. 3 (1997 427 48.
43. See Rawls, supra note 1, at 65-8.
44. See Farrelly, supra note 38, at W26; see also Lindsay, supra note 37, at 9.
45. A. Sen Equality of What? in S. McMurrin, ed., Tanner Lectures on Human Values (Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 1980 at 137-162, 160.
46. For critical accounts of the capability approach, see generally A. Sen, Development as Freedom (New York : Anchor Books, 1999 M. Nussbaum, Women and Human Development: The Capabilities Approach (Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 1999).
47. A. Sen, Inequality Reexamined (Cambridge : Harvard University Press, 1992 at 39-41.
48. See Sen, supra note 42, at 87.
49. The phrase "decent genetic minimum" is a variation on Buchanan et al.'s "genetic decent minimum." See Buchanan, supra note 9, at 81-2.
50. See Nussbaum, supra note 42, at 85-86.
51. Id., at 85.
52. R. Arneson Why Justice Requires Transfers to Offset Income and Wealth Inequalities Social Philosophy and Policy 19, No. 2 (2002 172 200, at 194.
53. G. A. Cohen Luck and Equality: A Reply to Hurley Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 72, No. 2 (2006 439 446
54. citing P. Casal Why Sufficiency Is Not Enough Ethics 117, No. 3 (2006 296 326.
55. Id. (Casal).
56. M. Nussbaum Human Functioning and Social Justice: In Defense of Aristotelian Essentialism Political Theory 20, No. 2 (2002 202 246, at 228.
57. See Sen, supra note 41, at 160.
58. See Nussbaum, supra note 42, at 78-80.
59. See Cohen, supra note 18, at 933.
60. R. Nozick, Anarchy, State, and Utopia (New York : Basic Books, 1974 at 160-64.
61. See Nussbaum, supra note 51, at 224.
62. See Cohen, supra note 21, at 118 (footnote).
63. See Sen, supra note 43, at 19-21.
64. See Nussbaum, supra note 51, at 233.
65. A. Sen Justice: Means Versus Freedoms Philosophy and Public Affairs 19, No. 2 (1990 111 21, at 116.
66. N. Daniels Equality of What: Welfare, Resources, or Capabilities? Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 58, No. 4 (1990 947 54.
67. See Lindsay, supra note 37, at 20.
68. Id., at 6-7.
69. See Rawls, supra note 12, at 106, 178.
70. See Lindsay, supra note 37, at 13.
71. See Rawls, supra note 1, at 66.
72. Id., at 80.
73. I owe this example to G. A. Cohen.
74. See Farrelly, supra note 38, at W25.
75. Id., at W27.
76. On this first element of Farrelly's objection, see also A. Lippman Genetic and Public Health: Means, Ends, and Justices American Journal of Human Genetics 48, No. 1 (1991 1201 1228.
77. UNICEF Under-Five Mortality Rankings The State of the World's Children: 2000, available at http://www.unicef.org/sowc00/stat2.htm (last visited October 17, 2007).
78. See M. Nussbaum Aristotle, Politics, and Human Capabilities: A Response to Antony, Arneson, Charlesworth, and Mulgan Ethics 111, No. 1 (2000 102 40, at 125-27.
79. See Nussbaum, supra note 51, at 222.