Deliberately choosing disability

Choosing disabilities--some real world cases

• Candace McCulloch and Sharon Duchesneau deliberately choose "deaf of deaf" sperm donor and have two deaf children
• Choosing deafness and dwarfism
• Victims from birth?

What is deafness? What is dwarfism?

• hereditary deafness vs. acquired deafness
• Asch's views on disability
• Is it deafness (disability) or Deafness (culture)?  Is it dwarfism or Dwarfism (a culture)?
• Culture or community?  
• People want children who share their culture, even if sharing the culture involves disadvantages--Jewish children, African American children

How should this couple reason? (Obligation Principle)

1. We are obligated to create a hearing child only if creating a deaf child would be harmful to that child.  (Obligation Principle).
2. But it's not harmful to a deaf child to be created.  She would not be better off if we created a hearing child (that would be a different child--Precariousness of Origin); her life as a deaf child is almost certainly going to be worth living; she'll be glad she's alive; she won't complain that she was created.  THEREFORE,
3. We are not obligated to create a hearing child.

Dena Davis -- background concepts

Types of rights (Joel Feinberg):

1. Rights that children and adults share:  right not to be killed
2. Rights of children particularly:  right to have basic needs met
3. Rights of adults only:  right to vote, right to free exercise of religion, right to marry
4. Rights in trust (rights that should be preserved so adult child can exercise them later): right to choose marriage partner,  right to procreate, right to free exercise of religion 

• Rights in trust also called: "right to an open future"
• should not create/treat child in such a way that future options are reduced
• note: we'll talk more about the right to an open future when we move on from "procreation" to "parenthood" after spring break

How should this couple reason? 

1. Deliberately pursuing deafness (as opposed to accidentally having a deaf child) violates a child's right to an open future--the deliberately chosen deaf child will be pushed in certain directions.
2. We should respect a child's right to an open future.
3. We should not seek out a deaf sperm donor.

Other applications 

• gender selection
• ???
• If we reason this way in a range of cases, where do we wind up?