The Case Against Perfection / Michael J. Sandel

Summary

 

    The Case Against Perfection composed by Michael J. Sandel is an article which he wrote about whether genetic engineering should be allowed or not. This article consists of two parts―the controversy of genetic engineering and his opinion.

     In the first part, Sandel points out the benefits of genetic engineering and the weakness of today’s ethical controversy that concerns autonomy, fairness, and individual rights.

     In the second part, Sandel mainly argue that even if people developed the technology to design themselves, they should not employ it because it would make people not to appreciate our lives as a gift. In order to support his view of genetic engineering, he made three points with three keywords―humility, responsibility, and solidarity. According to Sandel’s First point, genetic engineering deprives people of humility. This is because it makes people think their talents are created by their own doing, and they would be intolerant of unexpected. For Second point, genetic engineering disables people from putting the onus of their lives on god and obliges people to have more responsibility of their talents. For Third point, genetic engineering makes people not to feel sympathy for others because people can avoid risks by employing it and there is no need to share same risks. It will lead people to lessen their social solidarity.

 

Reaction 

I mainly agree with Sandel’s idea especially in the sections of humility. In the section, he states that people might be arrogant since they would misunderstand their talents are wholly designed by themselves, and people would be unaccustomed to the unbidden. When I read this section, I thought this idea was very serious for us since people might be really upset when they came to face unexpected things. If this situation came true,  it would lead people to act improperly to cope with the unexpected and cause various problems. For example― if a genetically designed child was born with unwelcomed characteristics, it would be one of the causes of child neglect. If the society was confident of their technique of genetic engineering, parents of the child would be really confused and perhaps they could not love their child. I was really concerned this sort of situation caused by genetic engineering.

 

 

What I think about his way of writing

     I thought it was a pretty persuasive article, however, the construction made his argument hard to understand. His main argument was in the section of “effort and giftedness” which was quite long chapter. This chapter has a lot of contents; however, he did not use any indications (like a small title) or noticeable transitions. If he used it, I think it would help readers to understand his argument more effectively.