Bach to the future: response to: Extending preimplantation genetic diagnosis: medical and non-medical uses
- Correspondence to: Dr Richard Ashcroft, Medical Ethics Unit, Department of Primary Health Care and General Practice, Imperial College London, Reynolds Building, St Dunstan’s Road, London W6 8RP, UK; r.ashcroft{at}ic.ac.uk
- Accepted 12 January 2003
Abstract
Professor Robertson sketches an elegant framework for policy evaluation and regulation of the use of preimplantation genetic diagnosis for various medical, medical related, and non-medical purposes. In criticism of his position, I argue that the distinction between policy and ethics upon which his argument relies is highly unstable, and the approach taken to ethical evaluation of particular parental interests leaves open many issues which the policy approach would hope to exclude. In conclusion I argue that while his position ultimately fails, the onus is on his critics to come up with a viable and satisfying alternative.
