The Ethics of Choosing Children

"This is an exciting, perceptive and theoretically sophisticated contribution to vital conversations across the academic disciplines. Reader extends the horizons of bioethics to engage issues of gender, gift and responsibility in relation to future generations. The book should be read and discussed widely." (Rachel Muers, Senior Lecturer in Christian Studies, Leeds University, UK) "This is a timely and challenging book. At a point in our biotechnological development when 'choosing children' is becoming technically feasible, it is vital to examine critically some of our most dearly held assumptions about normativity, choice and control. Simon Reader's book extends the standard bioethical discussion of reproductive decision making beyond the realm of personal preferences to incorporate social, philosophical, historical and gendered perspectives that will enrich these collective deliberations." (Jackie Leach Scully, Professor of Social Ethics and Bioethics, Newcastle University, UK)

This book takes the contentious issue of designer babies and argues against the liberal eugenic current of bioethics that commends the logic and choice regimes of selective reproduction.

This book takes the contentious issue of designer babies and argues against the liberal eugenic current of bioethics that commends the logic and choice regimes of selective reproduction. Against conceptions of Procreative Beneficence that trade on a disregard for the gifts of maternal bodies, it seeks to recover a thought of maternal giving and a more hospitable ethic of generational beneficence. Exploring themes of responsibility, gift and natality, the book refigures the experience of reproduction as the site of an ethical response to future generations, where refusal to choose one’s children is one virtuous response. The book will appeal to anyone with an interest in reproductive ethics, feminist thought and those seeking principled grounds for resisting the technologies of choosing children.