Ives Parr is an independent scholar known for his work on the science and ethics of genetic enhancement. For the first episode of the Mental Disorder podcast, I invited him on to talk about how polygenic screening and embryo selection could be used to prevent or reduce the risk of mental illness. Ives and I discuss whether there are tradeoffs between mental wellbeing and other traits, potential arms races in selection for mental and physical abilities, and whether a mentally healthier society would be more religious and politically conservative given the existing correlations between these traits and mental health. In the second half we focus on ethical issues, like which kinds of psychological diversity we should value, whether parents with mental health issues or physical disabilities should be permitted to intentionally create children with those same problems, and how Effective Altruists ought to think about mental healthcare spending.
You can listen on Apple Podcasts by clicking here, or on YouTube by clicking here. Spotify and other podcast players will be available soon, and I plan on recording video for podcasts in the near future.
Links:
* Ives Parr, “Heartwarming Video of First PGT-P Baby With Parents”
* Ives Parr, “The Controversial Future of Genetic Testing | VICE News.”
* Mia Georgiou, “Meet Lulu and Nana, the World’s First CRISPR Genome-Edited Babies.”
* Jonathan Anomaly, “Creating Future People: The Ethics of Genetic Enhancement.”
* Emil Kirkegaard, “Homosexuality is a Mental Illness.”
* David Teather, “Lesbian Couple Have Deaf Baby by Choice.”
* Julian Savelescu, “Procreative Beneficence: Why we should Select the Best Children.”
* Michael Plant, “Don’t Just Give Well, Give WELLBYs: HLI’s 2022 Charity Recommendation.”
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