Why does the author refer to operating on a broken leg?
As genetic screening of embryos becomes cheaper, the debate moves from whether to screen for serious inherited disease, where there is wide agreement, to whether to screen for traits such as height or intelligence. Critics see a slope: first disease, then disability, then preference. But slopes are not inevitable. Societies regularly distinguish between prevention of grave suffering and enhancement, as they do in medicine generally; we operate on a broken leg but do not generally lengthen healthy ones. The better worry about screening for traits is not the slope but the inequality: a technology available mainly to the wealthy could pass advantages from one generation to the next. That is a reason for regulation and public funding, not necessarily prohibition.
Answer and explanation
Correct answer: A. To show that medicine already separates treating harm from improving a healthy condition
- Step 1: The sentence says we operate on a broken leg but do not generally lengthen healthy ones.
- Step 2: That is the distinction between prevention of suffering and enhancement.
Answer
To show that medicine already separates treating harm from improving a healthy condition.
Why not the others: The example does not concern inheritance, the aim of lengthening, comparative safety or equal acceptability.
Practise more Genetics.
Free questions with an explanation for every one, and full timed LNAT mock tests.