THE NONIDENTITY PROBLEM AND GENETIC HARMS - THE CASE OF WRONGFUL HANDICAPS

The Human Genome Project will produce information permitting increasin g opportunities to prevent genetically transmitted harms, most of whic h will be compatible with a life worth living through avoiding concept ion or terminating a pregnancy. Failure to prevent these harms when it is possible for parents to do so without substantial burdens or costs to themselves or others are what I call ''wrongful handicaps'' Derek Parfit has developed a systematic difficulty for any such cases being wrongs - when the harm could be prevented only by preventing the exist ence of the individual who would have a worthwhile life even with the handicap, then bringing him into existence with the handicap does not make him worse off and so does not wrong him. I argue that a non ''per son-affecting'' principle requiring the avoidance of suffering and lim ited opportunity correctly accounts for cases of wrongful handicaps wi thout requiring that the individuals with the handicap have been made worse off and therefore wronged. It is an advantage, not a difficulty, of this account that it does not imply that the person with the handi cap has been wronged or is a victim with a special moral complaint.