Beyond Humanity?: The Ethics of Biomedical EnhancementBiotechnologies already on the horizon will enable us to be smarter, have better memories, be stronger and quicker, have more stamina, live longer, be more resistant to diseases, and enjoy richer emotional lives. To some of us, these prospects are heartening; to others, they are dreadful. In Beyond Humanity a leading philosopher offers a powerful and controversial exploration of urgent ethical issues concerning human enhancement. These raise enduring questions about what it is to be human, about individuality, about our relationship to nature, and about what sort of society we should strive to have. Allen E. Buchanan urges that the debate about enhancement needs to be informed by a proper understanding of evolutionary biology, which has discredited the simplistic conceptions of human nature used by many opponents of enhancement. He argues that there are powerful reasons for us to embark on the enhancement enterprise, and no objections to enhancement that are sufficient to outweigh them. |
Contents
| 1 | |
2 ENHANCEMENT AND HUMAN DEVELOPMENT | 35 |
3 CHARACTER | 69 |
4 HUMAN NATURE AND THE NATURAL | 115 |
5 CONSERVATISM AND ENHANCEMENT | 143 |
6 UNINTENDED BAD CONSEQUENCES | 171 |
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Common terms and phrases
Allen Buchanan Anders Sandberg anti-enhancement appreciation argue argument benefits of enhancement Bioethics biomedical enhancements Bostrom capacity cautionary heuristics Chapter character concerns claim cognitive enhancements complex compulsory licensing concept of human conclusive reasons Conservative constraints cooperation critics of enhancement depends diffusion dominant cooperative drugs effects embryos enhancement debate enhancement enterprise enhancement project ethics of enhancement evolution evolutionary biology example existing extreme connectedness function genes Genetic Engineering genetic modification GIJI higher moral status historical enhancements Human Enhancement human nature human rights idea important improvement increase individuals inequalities injustices institutions interventions Julian Savulescu justice in innovation Leon Kass limitations literacy ment Michael Sandel Nick Bostrom one’s Oxford persons plausible political possibility posthumans postpersons potential Precautionary Principle problem procreation produce pursuit of enhancements rational self-manipulation relationships reproduction result risk Sandel sense of giftedness serious significant social tion traits Uehiro unenhanced University Press virtue well-being worry