How to Calculate the Utility of Human Germline Gene Transformations?

Abstract

"A really hard question for the utilitarianism approach in Bioethics is linked to the choice of the right tools for evaluating the relationship between the utility of an act and its consequence (1, 12, 18). Let's consider the problems that Utilitarianism has to solve for building a coherent analysis of the moral dilemma linked to human genetics (HG). I focus my paper on the therapeutic application of HG (germline gene therapy GLGT) because this is the most reasonable biotechnological application on human beings. I consider GLGT as a "reasonable" application of HG because has a precise finality: the treatment (16). If we hypothesise some HG applications to cultivate (or improve) some particular human peculiarity -let's think of nazi eugenics-, we have a whole of problematical implications which need a moral analysis (2, 9)."