McDougall Rosalind
Centre for Health and Society, 207 Bouverie St, University of Melbourne, VIC 3010, Australia.
Bioethics. 2007 May;21(4):181-90. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-8519.2007.00544.x.
In this paper I explore the potential of virtue ethical ideas to generate a new way of thinking about the ethical questions surrounding the creation of children. Applying ideas from neo-Aristotelian virtue ethics to the parental sphere specifically, I develop a framework for the moral assessment of reproductive actions that centres on the concept of parental virtue. I suggest that the character traits of the good parent can be used as a basis for determining the moral permissibility of a particular reproductive action. I posit three parental virtues and argue that we can see the moral status of a reproductive action as determined by the relationship between such an action and (at least) these virtues. Using a case involving selection for deafness, I argue that thinking in terms of the question 'would a virtuous parent do this?' when morally assessing reproductive action is a viable and useful way of thinking about issues in reproductive ethics.
在本文中，我探讨了美德伦理观念在围绕孩子生育的伦理问题上催生新思维方式的潜力。具体而言，将新亚里士多德主义美德伦理的观念应用于父母领域，我构建了一个以父母美德概念为核心的生育行为道德评估框架。我认为，好父母的性格特质可作为判定特定生育行为道德可允许性的依据。我提出三种父母美德，并主张我们可将生育行为的道德地位视为由该行为与（至少）这些美德之间的关系所决定。通过一个涉及选择生育聋儿的案例，我认为在对生育行为进行道德评估时，从“一位有德行的家长会这样做吗？”这一问题的角度去思考，是思考生育伦理问题的一种可行且有用的方式。
