4th Pavia Graduate Conference in Political Philosophy – Abstract/Feeney


Oliver Feeney

Against Genetic Prioritarianism

In this paper, I examine how egalitarianism in the field of ‘genetics and justice’ is getting a bad name particularly with the seemingly more plausible prioritarian approach. Although the equality-priority debate is far wider than genetics, and consequently issues here are traceable to wider disagreements, for present purposes I concentrate on some of its possible genetic implications. I argue that extending the scope of equality into access to speculative genetic intervention is not as implausible as sometimes described, particularly regarding inequalities arising from, or reinforced by this post-genetic setting. I introduce this argument in response to the leading prioritarian approach in this field, namely that of Colin Farrelly. I hope to show that this approach is not unambiguously superior to an egalitarian counterpart.