Brave New Babies (A Film)  Jonathan Glover

1. The narrator in the film is a professor of philosophy (the children are his children).

2.  There are arguments in the film.  As you’re watching the film ask yourself what is his argument here?

3.  Note that the film was made quite a few years ago.  The scientific work on genetics has greatly progressed, but the moral or ethical issues raised by the film are still the one’s we are faced with.

4.  Glover (the name of the philosopher) says we start with certain gut feelings about genetic engineering.  The point of philosophy is to think out which of our gut feelings are the correct ones. 

5.  The interviews with the mothers.  What is the implicit argument here?

6. There is the interview with the woman who has had abortions.  What’s the argument here?  There is an argument from consistency. 

7.  What are the issues of personal identity.  Notice how the two boys have different intuitions about the issue of identity.  Why is the sequence with the triplets so effective?  If a fetus were genetically altered, say to remove a disease, would it be the same person?  What do we mean by “same person”?

8.  What is the distinction between negative and positive eugenics?

9.  Near the end there is a sequence with a chimera, i.e. an animal which is a cross between two species (in this case a goat and a sheep).  Why does this make us uncomfortable?   Does the scientist look uncomfortable when he is questioned about the value of doing this kind of research?

10.  What is the point that Glover makes at the end about war and genetic engineering?  How do you respond to this?  How sure does Glover seem to be regarding his position?