September 12th 2019 - Ethical Issues in Human Enhancement PDF

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Ethical Issues in Human Enhancement Bostrom & Roche

What is human enhancement? ● ● ●

‘Enhancement is typically controposed to therapy’ - B&R Recall Sandel’s P  romise vs Predicament ‘Vaccination can be seen as an immune system enhancer, or, alternatively, as a preventative therapeutic intervention’ - B&R

B&R’s Key Distinction - The Therapy-Enhancement Dichotomy ●

Bioconservatives : ‘Subscribers to this anti-enhancement view’

Where is the line between therapy and enhancement? ● Transhumanists : ‘Advocates of human enhancement’

Group Discussion 1. What do you think is the most urgent and important question we need to ask about the ethics of human enhancement? 2. Which area of human enhancement concerns you most: physical, cognitive, mood, personality enhancement, or what we owe to future generations? 3. Are you more of a bioconservative or transhumanist? Why?

Life Extension ●

Unethical: Destroys the value of our individual life projects (Bernard Williams) ○ Leads to overpopulation

Physical Enhancement ● ● ●

“Doping” in sports - unfair, or ethically permissible? Why not allow athletes equal access to performance enhancing drugs? Trigger Sandel’s “arms race” ○ Over p  ositional goods

Mood & Personality Enhancement ● ●

Unethical: Loss of opportunity for intellectual, emotional, and moral growth Loss of authenticity--- “On-drug persona”

Cognitive Enhancers ● ● ●

Positional good Enhances performance on exams--- cheating? Unethical: “A new species” ○ Enhanced versus unenhanced

Selecting the Best Children ● ●

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Risk harming embryos ○ Wait for better technology Unethical: Autonomy and Dignity ○ Of the unenhanced ○ Of the enhanced Time, place, context Stable: Intelligence, health, happiness? Michael Sandel believes--- Unethical: Diminishes parental love? ○ B&R believe that selected children may be more loved Life Extension & selecting babies ○ Very real fear ○ Happening as we speak ○ No viable Solution...