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Quote by Michael Sandel

“I think very often when we think we are aiming at the best for our children, what we are really doing is trying to position them for competitive success in an intensely driven kind of society. I'm not sure that always leads to the good life or to happiness.”

Quote by Michael Sandel

Author

Michael Sandel is a renowned American philosopher known for his contributions to ethics and political philosophy. His writings and teaching style have been well-received by students and the public, particularly for his in-depth exploration of moral and justice issues. more

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“I think part of being a parent, to love one's child, is to accept them as they come - not to see them as instruments of our ambition or as creatures to be molded, as if they were themselves commodities.”

Ifs Thinking Children Parent Accepting Creatures Ambition Instruments Commodity Being A Parent

Author:Michael Sandel

“I think too often in our society parents, who may have good impulses, overreach and try to mold and shape and direct their child.”

Thinking Trying May Children Parent Shapes Direct Impulse Our Society Mold

Author:Michael Sandel

“I think people who want to use genetic technologies to gain a competitive edge for their children are engaging in a kind of overreaching that could really undermine our appreciation of children as gifts for which we should be grateful and, instead, to view them as products or instruments that are there to be molded and directed.”

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Author:Michael Sandel

“It's true that to speak of an ethic of giftedness, which is very much the ethic that I deploy in raising questions about designer children and genetic engineering - an appreciation of the giftedness of the child or the giftedness of life does have religious resonance, because a great many religious traditions emphasize the sense in which the good things in life are not all our own doing; they are gifts from God.”

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Author:Michael Sandel

“It's possible to make sense of what's morally at stake in an appreciation of the gift of life, or the gift of a child, without necessarily presupposing that there is a giver. What matters is that the gift - in this case, the child - not be wholly our own doing, our own product.”

Children Matter Cases Products Appreciation Make Sense Stakes What Matters Giver Gifts Of Life

Author:Michael Sandel

“One of the ways in which parenting is a learning experience and an opportunity for moral growth is that we learn as parents that we don't choose the kind of child that we have.”

Way Kind Children Opportunity Parent Growth Moral Learning Experience Moral Growth

Author:Michael Sandel

“In most of our lives, we are accustomed to aiming at mastery and control and dominion- - over nature, over our lives, over our jobs, over our careers, over the goods that we buy.”

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Author:Michael Sandel

“Parenthood is a school for humility. We can't choose the precise traits of our children, and that is morally important. It teaches us what William May, a theologian whom I greatly admire, calls "an openness to the unbidden."”

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Author:Michael Sandel

“I am trying to get at the moral arguments and the ethical status of various attempts at enhancement, or genetic engineering, or the bid for designer children. But there are implications for society at large.”

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Author:Michael Sandel

“I would include non-medical sex selection as one of those practices that I think is morally questionable and that can carry adverse social consequences.”

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Author:Michael Sandel