Disability Law Commons^™

Disability And Designer Babies, Brigham A. Fordham

Brigham A Fordham

If deaf parents purposely use new genetic technologies to give their child the genes for deafness, have the parents harmed the child? This and similar questions regarding parents who make genetic choices in favor of disability have preoccupied much of the scholarship regarding new artificial reproductive technologies. Some have argued that we should determine whether a child has been harmed by pondering whether the child's "right to an open future" has been violated by the parents' genetic intervention. If that right is violated, some say, the parents should be subject to tort liability for inflicting a harm upon the child. …