Biography Professor John Harris
John Harris is Sir David Alliance Professor of Bioethics is a member of the Human Genetics Commission and of the Ethics Committee of the British Medical Association. He was one of the Founder Directors of the International Association of Bioethics and a founder member of the Board of the Journal Bioethics and a member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Medical Ethics and many other journals.
He has been critical of the HFEA’s view that sex selection be permitted only in where there is risk of serious disease. In an article in the British Medical Journal, he wrote:
“The HFEA’s recent report on sex selection abdicates its responsibility to give its own authentic advice on the matters within its remit, that it accepts arguments and conclusions that are implausible on the face of it and where they depend on empirical claims, produce no empirical evidence whatsoever, but rely on reckless speculation as to what the “facts” are likely to be. Finally, having committed themselves to what I call the “democratic presumption” - that human freedom will not be constrained unless very good and powerful reasons can be produced to justify such infringement of liberty - the HFEA simply re-formulate the democratic presumption as saying the opposite – namely that freedom may only be exercised if powerful justifications are produced for any exercise of liberty.”
He has been critical of the HFEA’s view that sex selection be permitted only in where there is risk of serious disease. In an article in the British Medical Journal, he wrote:
“The HFEA’s recent report on sex selection abdicates its responsibility to give its own authentic advice on the matters within its remit, that it accepts arguments and conclusions that are implausible on the face of it and where they depend on empirical claims, produce no empirical evidence whatsoever, but rely on reckless speculation as to what the “facts” are likely to be. Finally, having committed themselves to what I call the “democratic presumption” - that human freedom will not be constrained unless very good and powerful reasons can be produced to justify such infringement of liberty - the HFEA simply re-formulate the democratic presumption as saying the opposite – namely that freedom may only be exercised if powerful justifications are produced for any exercise of liberty.”
