Moderators Michael Sandel and Kathy Hudson lead a group discussion and elicit questions from the audience.
Sandel reports biologist Watson's controversial position that women should be able to abort a homosexual child if they
could learn its gender. The panelists talk about the gender issues surrounding a patient's right to choose even if it conflicts with
others' morals. The choice between defending reproductive rights and reducing gender bias is a complicated one, and reproductive rights
are socially defined and regulated.
In the realm of new reproductive technology, do people believe that the law should embody ethical norms? What ethical
norms dictate what the law should do? Audience members wonder to what extent they should tailor policies, regulations, and norms to the
desires and preferences of individual childbearing women. Hudson believes that drawing lines is impossible on ethical grounds. For this
reason, PGD remains controversial, with one side positing that it represents choice and the other side claiming that it reveals a
consumeristic attitude toward reproduction.
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