Gregory Stock, "The Enhanced and the Unenhanced"

Questions for Making Connections within the Reading:  

1. The last paragraph of Stock's reading begins with these words: "As I see it, the coming opportunities in germinal choice technology far outweigh the risks." Do you feel that Stock's argument fully supports this claim? Conversely, would you say that he has done an adequate job of giving the risks "equal time" with the benefits?  

2. Much of the debate over genetic technology has focused on the issue of cloning. Does Stock's focus on genetic choice technology as opposed to cloning make his job as a spokesperson easier or more difficult? Can Stock's argument for genetic choice technology be applied to cloning as well? Can his argument be used to justify technological changes of every kind? If you feel that his argument could be used to justify every change, is that a strength or a weakness?  

3. What does Stock mean in this passage:

Today's intellectual elite might not want to live in a world as aggressive, competitive, and uncontrolled as the one that would emerge from universal access to potent germinal choice technology, so their distaste for the technology may deepen once its true implications become clear.

Why would the world that Stock foresees be more "aggressive, competitive, and uncontrolled" than it is right now? What would elites have to fear from such a world? If our society creates a free market in genetic technology, are we likely to see more, or less, equality? Will we see more, or less, peace and security? If everyone gets smarter and stronger, what might be the result?  

Questions for Writing:  

1. Questions related to genetic technology can be viewed from many perspectives-scientific, ethical, historical, religious, economic, political, and pragmatic. What perspectives does Stock tend to adopt? How does his choice of perspectives shape the conclusions he reaches?  

2. How does Stock's proposal differ from the practice of eugenics in Nazi Germany? Does it matter if individuals rather than governments make decisions about the genetic modification of future generations? Do you agree that individuals are less likely than governments to withhold access to genetic technologies? Should anyone have the right to change the genetic make-up of the coming generation?  

Questions for Making Connections Between Readings:  

1. Stock assumes that genetic technologies can be made widely, or even universally, available. Does William Greider paint a picture of American social life that lends credence to Stock's assumptions? Would a free market in genetic technology assure that everyone could take advantage of such technological advances? How might the market in these technologies be protected or controlled to make certain that everyone would be able to compete equally for these benefits? Should such market protections be introduced?  

2. Stock's discussion of genetic technology focuses on enhancing the conventional physical and mental powers of individuals. He appears to be less interested in the psychological effects that might follow from such "enhancements." Starting with Martha Stout's discussion of the way the brain processes traumatic events, weigh the advantages and disadvantages of genetic changes that might eliminate our innate tendency to dissociate ourselves from painful events. Could it be that the fugue state Stout describes has a survival advantage? Is it possible that the desire to redesign human beings is a product of a dissociated state of mind? Would a person less alienated from the world really want to enhance human beings as they now exist?