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I love my children: am I racist? On the wish to be biologically related to one’s children
  1. Ezio Di Nucci
  1. University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
  1. Correspondence to Dr Ezio Di Nucci, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen 1165, Denmark; ezio{at}sund.ku.dk

Abstract

Is the wish to be biologically related to your children legitimate? Here, I respond to an argument in support of a negative answer to this question according to which a preference towards having children one is biologically related to is analogous to a preference towards associating with members of one’s own race. I reject this analogy, mainly on the grounds that only the latter constitutes discrimination; still, I conclude that indeed a preference towards children one is biologically related to is morally illegitimate because, in the context of parental love, biological considerations are normatively irrelevant.

  • reproductive medicine

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Footnotes

  • Funding This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.

  • Competing interests None declared.

  • Patient consent Not required.

  • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.