Human Enhancement

432 Pages·2009·2.272 MB·English

by  Julian Savulescu, Nick Bostrom

Human Enhancement
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Human Enhancement
Edited by Julian Savulescu and Nick Bostrom
1
1
GreatClarendonStreet,Oxfordox26dp
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Humanenhancement/editedbyJulianSavulescuandNickBostrom.
p.;cm.
Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
ISBN978–0–19–929972–0(alk.paper)
1.Medicalinnovations—Socialaspects.2.Medicalethics.3.Prenataldiagnosis.4.Genetic
engineering.I.Savulescu,Julian.II.Bostrom,Nick,1973-
[DNLM:1.BiomedicalEnhancement—ethics.2.GeneticEngineering—ethics.3.Prenatal
diagnosis—ethics.W82H9182008]
RA418.5.M4H862008
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ISBN978–0–19–929972–0
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Contents
Acknowledgements vii
Introduction
Human Enhancement Ethics: The State of the Debate 1
Nick Bostrom and Julian Savulescu
PartI. HumanEnhancementinGeneral
1. Can Anyone Really Be Talking About Ethically Modifying
Human Nature? 25
Norman Daniels
2. What’s Taxonomy Got to Do with It? ‘‘Species Integrity,’’
Human Rights, and Science Policy 43
Eric T.Juengst
3. Should We Improve Human Nature? An Interrogation from an
Asian Perspective 59
Ryuichi Ida
4. The Case Against Perfection: What’s Wrong with Designer
Children, Bionic Athletes, and Genetic Engineering 71
Michael J. Sandel
5. What Is and Is Not Wrong With Enhancement? 91
Frances Kamm
6. Enhancements Are a Moral Obligation 131
John Harris
7. Playing God 155
C. A. J. Coady
8. Toward a More Fruitful Debate About Enhancement 181
Erik Parens
9. Good, Better, or Best? 199
Arthur L. Caplan
vi contents
10. The Human Prejudice and the Moral Status of Enhanced
Beings: What DoWe Owe the Gods? 211
Julian Savulescu
PartII. SpecificEnhancements
11. Is Selection of Children Wrong? 251
Dan W. Brock
12. Parental Choice and Human Improvement 277
Peter Singer
13. Reasons Against the Selection of Life: From Japan’s Experience
of Prenatal Genetic Diagnosis 291
SusumuShimazono
14. Medical Enhancement and the Ethos of Elite Sport 315
Torbjo¨rn Ta¨nnsjo¨
15. Life Enhancement Technologies: Significance of Social
Category Membership 327
Christine Overall
16. Paternalism in the Age of Cognitive Enhancement: Do Civil
Liberties Presuppose Roughly Equal Mental Ability? 341
Daniel Wikler
17. Enhancing Our Truth Orientation 357
Robin Hanson
PartIII. Enhancementasa Practical Challenge
18. The Wisdom of Nature: An Evolutionary Heuristic for Human
Enhancement 375
Nick Bostrom and Anders Sandberg
Index 417
Acknowledgements
TheEditorswouldliketogratefullyacknowledgethesupportoftheUehiro
Foundation on Ethics and Education and the Carnegie Council on Ethics
and International Affairs for their support. Much of this book began as the
2004 Oxford-Uehiro-Carnegie Council Conference held at the Carnegie
Council in New York on November 18–19, 2004. The theme of that
conference was ‘‘How Can Human Nature Be Ethically Improved ?’’
We would also like to thank Heather Bradshaw, Christine Gowing,
Ruth Coster, and Miriam Wood for assistance with preparation of the
manuscript.
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Introduction
Human Enhancement Ethics: The
State of the Debate
Nick Bostrom and Julian Savulescu
Background
Are we good enough? If not, how may we improve ourselves? Must we
restrict ourselves to traditional methods like study and training? Or should
we also use science to enhance some of our mental and physical capacities
more directly?
Over the last decade, human enhancement has grown into a major
topic of debate in applied ethics. Interest has been stimulated by advances
in the biomedical sciences, advances which to many suggest that it will
become increasingly feasible to use medicine and technology to reshape,
manipulate, and enhance many aspects of human biology even in healthy
individuals. To the extent that such interventions are on the horizon
(or already available) there is an obvious practical dimension to these
debates. This practical dimension is underscored by an outcrop of think
tanks and activist organizations devoted to the biopolitics of enhancement.
Already one can detect a biopolitical fault line developing between pro-
enhancement and anti-enhancement groupings: transhumanists on one
side, who believe that a wide range of enhancements should be developed
and that people should be free to use them to transform themselves in
quite radical ways; and bioconservatives on the other, who believe that
we should not substantially alter human biology or the human condition.¹
There are also miscellaneous groups who try to position themselves in
¹ Seee.g.Bostrom,N.2006.‘AShortHistoryofTranshumanistThought’,AnalysisandMetaphysics,
5:63–95(http://www.nickbostrom.com/papers/history.pdf).