Unconventional settings and uses of human enhancement technologies: A non‐systematic review of public and experts' views on self‐enhancement and DIY biology/biohacking risks

2019 ◽  
Vol 1 (4) ◽  
pp. 295-305
Author(s):  
Rui Gaspar ◽  
Paul Rohde ◽  
Jean‐Christophe Giger
Keyword(s):  
Systematic Review ◽  
Human Enhancement ◽  
Diy Biology ◽  
Enhancement Technologies

Redefining the Boundaries of Humanity and the Human Body

2014 ◽  
pp. 1-10 ◽  
Author(s):  
José M. Galván ◽  
Rocci Luppicini
Keyword(s):  
Human Body ◽  
Conceptual Analysis ◽  
Human Enhancement ◽  
Ethical Question ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Human Species ◽  
Technological Society ◽  
Technical Ability ◽  
Enhancement Technologies

What are the boundaries of humanity and the human body within our evolving technological society? Within the field of technoethics, inquiry into the origins of the species is both a biological and ethical question as scholars attempt to grapple with conflicting views of what it means to be human and what attributes are core to human beings within the era of human enhancement technologies. Based on a historical and conceptual analysis, this chapter uses a technoethical lens to discuss defining characteristics of the human species as homo technicus. Under this framework, both symbolic capacity and technical ability are assumed to be grounded within the free and ethical nature of human beings. Ideas derived from Modernity and Postmodernity are drawn upon to provide a more encompassing view of humans that accommodates both its technical and ethical dimensions as homo technicus.

Technic Self-Determination

2014 ◽  
pp. 203-224
Author(s):  
Franco Cortese
Keyword(s):  
Human Dignity ◽  
Human Enhancement ◽  
Human Condition ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Will ◽  
Human Capacity ◽  
Enhancement Technologies ◽  
The Human Condition

This chapter addresses concerns that the development and proliferation of Human Enhancement Technologies (HET) will be (a) dehumanizing and a threat to human dignity and (b) a threat to our autonomy and sovereignty as individuals. Contrarily, HET can be shown to constitute the most effective foreseeable means of increasing the autonomy and sovereignty of individual members of society. Furthermore, this chapter elaborates the position that the use of HET exemplifies—and indeed even intensifies—our most human capacity and faculty, namely the desire for increased self-determination (i.e., control over the determining circumstances and conditions of our own selves and lives), which is referred to as the will toward self-determination. Based upon this position, arguably, the use of HET bears fundamental ontological continuity with the human condition in general and with the historically ubiquitous will toward self-determination in particular as it is today and has been in the past. HET will not be a dehumanizing force, but will rather serve to increase the very capacity and characteristic that characterizes us as human more accurately than anything else.

scholarly journals The Ethics of Genetic Cognitive Enhancement: Gene Editing or Embryo Selection?

Philosophies ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 20
Author(s):  
Marcelo de Araujo
Keyword(s):  
Gene Editing ◽  
Cognitive Enhancement ◽  
Public Attitudes ◽  
Human Enhancement ◽  
Embryo Selection ◽  
Genome Wide Association Studies ◽  
Philosophical Debate ◽  
Human Genomics ◽  
Enhancement Technologies

Recent research with human embryos, in different parts of the world, has sparked a new debate on the ethics of genetic human enhancement. This debate, however, has mainly focused on gene-editing technologies, especially CRISPR (Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats). Less attention has been given to the prospect of pursuing genetic human enhancement by means of IVF (In Vitro Fertilisation) in conjunction with in vitro gametogenesis, genome-wide association studies, and embryo selection. This article examines the different ethical implications of the quest for cognitive enhancement by means of gene-editing on the one hand, and embryo selection on the other. The article focuses on the ethics of cognitive enhancement by means of embryo selection, as this technology is more likely to become commercially available before cognitive enhancement by means of gene-editing. This article argues that the philosophical debate on the ethics of enhancement should take into consideration public attitudes to research on human genomics and human enhancement technologies. The article discusses, then, some of the recent findings of the SIENNA Project, which in 2019 conducted a survey on public attitudes to human genomics and human enhancement technologies in 11 countries (France, Germany, Greece, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain, Sweden, Brazil, South Africa, South Korea, and United States).

Knowing What to Wish For

2011 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 137-155 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shannon Vallor ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Human Dignity ◽  
Mass Culture ◽  
Human Enhancement ◽  
Enhancement Technologies ◽  
Normative Content ◽  
The Way

Through an analysis of the appeals to human dignity used by bioconservatives to criticize transhumanist proposals for aggressive development of human enhancement technologies, I identify an implicit tension within such appeals that renders them internally incoherent and ultimately unpersuasive. However, I point the way to a more compelling objection to radical human enhancement available to bioconservatives, a version of the argument from hubris that employs an Aristotelian account of prudential virtue in order to challenge the normative content of the liberal transhumanist vision. The vulnerability of the transhumanist project to this argument is underscored by Ortega y Gasset’s critique of technological mass culture, in which he suggests that humans may increasingly lack the prudential virtues needed to identify and authentically choose those ends worthy of technological pursuit.

“Enhancing Life?” Perspectives from Traditional Chinese Value-Systems

2008 ◽  
Vol 36 (1) ◽  
pp. 26-40 ◽  
Author(s):  
Russell Kirkland
Keyword(s):  
Genetic Engineering ◽  
World Wide ◽  
Human Enhancement ◽  
Cutting Edge ◽  
Value Systems ◽  
Life Enhancement ◽  
East And West ◽  
Enhancement Technologies

In his introduction to this symposium, “Religions and Cultures of East and West: Perspectives on Bioethics,” Dr. Robert Sade defined its purpose as follows: “The objective of [our] discussions…is to explore the limits of enhancement technologies in light of what makes us essentially human, in the view of world-wide cultures and religions.”These issues would seem to be at the cutting edge of any informed deliberation concerning the merits of “human enhancement” technologies. For instance, the issue of how “what makes us essentially human” affects our reflection on issues of technological “life enhancement” is raised in a 2007 book by Harvard professor Michael J. Sandel, The Case Against Perfection: Ethics in the Age of Genetic Engineering.

scholarly journals Reading Posthuman Ethics in Daniel Wilson’s Amped

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 86-90
Author(s):  
Omar M. Abdullah ◽  
Hardev Kaur
Keyword(s):  
20Th Century ◽  
Human Dignity ◽  
Technological Development ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Human Enhancement ◽  
Human Mind ◽  
Human Form ◽  
New Horizons ◽  
Technological World ◽  
Enhancement Technologies

In 20th century and beyond, humans have witnessed numerous advances in technology which have opened new horizons. Science and technology redesigned human life exponentially and humans always search for a more technological world and hence more comfort and ease. As such, going past human confinement could be accessible through a few changes in human form, but these changes posture a contentious point since people grow into being more reliant on technology in order to execute their desires and needs. What will happen to humanness and humanity? What will happen to their moralities and behaviors? In this manner, technological development could have both promising and discouraging pictures within the human mind. The current study cites Daniel H. Wilson’s Amped (2013) to discuss the clash of views between Transhumanists and Bioconservatives. Transhumanists believe that human improvement advances should be made broadly accessible, where people could adopt these innovations and apply them to themselves to have a better life. In particular, bioconservatives consider human enhancement technologies as ‘dehumanizing’ for these technologies might weaken human dignity and affect something that is profoundly valuable about being human. As such, Posthuman theory is consulted in order to analyze the ethical and moral concerns of human enhancement technology in Wilson’s Amped.  The findings are summed in the importance of ethics in any kind of enhancement and conclude that the trustworthy source is a priority to ensure success.

scholarly journals ETHICS OF DECISION MAKING IN MEDICINE IN THE ERA OF TECHNICAL REVOLUTION

Bioethics ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 10-16
Author(s):  
Natalya N. Sedova ◽  
◽  
Tatyana I. Guba ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Significant Role ◽  
Medical Practice ◽  
Human Enhancement ◽  
Medical Professionals ◽  
Technological Revolution ◽  
Scientific Context ◽  
Enhancement Technologies ◽  
Technical Revolution

Which way do world outlooks, scientific findings and empiric evaluations correlate with each other in decision making in medicine? The answer to this question is given in the scientific context. There is a theory of decision making which is in demand by medical professionals, though not enough yet [1, 2]. So, what is the theory of decision making and to what extent its advancement may be applied to medicine with growing contradictions of technological revolution and human bioevolution? The choice of tactics in a patient’s management does not depend exclusively on clinical decisions. A doctor’s moral stand plays a significant role in decision making in medicine. This article deals with some factors that have effect on this stand. The role of ethical expert examination is substantiated. It is particularly important due to implementation of «human enhancement» technologies in medical practice. Decision making is always associated with a choice of options. Moral considerations are a key point that must influence this choice under uncertain predictions concerning application of new biotechnologies.

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