Steiner and Ownership of Genetic Resources
Dumitru, Speranta
Steiner and Ownership of Genetic Resources - 2006.
68
This article addresses the conflict at the core of libertarian doctrine between self-ownership and the right to the fruits of one's labour, as far as begetting children is concerned. Hillel Steiner has proposed a left-libertarian solution to the paradox of universal self-ownership by arguing that genetic information is a natural resource that originally belongs to the common pool. This argument limits parents' property rights in their underage children. I argue that Steiner's solution leads to what may be called 'the paradox of the first self-owners '?: the first self-owners, if there were any, would be entitled to make use of their parents as natural resources, even for purposes of reproduction, subject to the left-libertarian condition of paying a fair rent to the global fund for the use of natural resources. More generally, I argue that Steiner's theory of genetic justice is misleading in certain respects, especially as it is exclusively founded on intergenerational transfers.
Steiner and Ownership of Genetic Resources - 2006.
68
This article addresses the conflict at the core of libertarian doctrine between self-ownership and the right to the fruits of one's labour, as far as begetting children is concerned. Hillel Steiner has proposed a left-libertarian solution to the paradox of universal self-ownership by arguing that genetic information is a natural resource that originally belongs to the common pool. This argument limits parents' property rights in their underage children. I argue that Steiner's solution leads to what may be called 'the paradox of the first self-owners '?: the first self-owners, if there were any, would be entitled to make use of their parents as natural resources, even for purposes of reproduction, subject to the left-libertarian condition of paying a fair rent to the global fund for the use of natural resources. More generally, I argue that Steiner's theory of genetic justice is misleading in certain respects, especially as it is exclusively founded on intergenerational transfers.
Réseaux sociaux