Enhancement: are ethicists excessively influenced by baseless speculations?

Area of Science:

• Bioethics
• Philosophy of Technology
• Medical Ethics

Background:

• A common but unclear distinction exists between therapy and enhancement.
• Enhancement is often perceived in grandiose, transformative terms, leading to rejection of current technologies like pre-implantation genetic diagnosis.
• This perception creates an impasse in ethical discussions regarding human enhancement.

Purpose of the Study:

• To challenge the sharp distinction between therapy and enhancement.
• To propose a categorization of enhancement to facilitate realistic ethical discussions.
• To re-evaluate the concept of human enhancement in a practical context.

Main Methods:

• Conceptual analysis of the therapy vs. enhancement distinction.
• Categorization of enhancement into three types: health-related (Category 1), non-health-related (Category 2), and transhumanism/posthumanism (Category 3).
• Argument that most current enhancements fall into Category 1, closely aligning with treatment.

Main Results:

• The therapy/enhancement distinction is problematic and often based on speculative, grandiose visions.
• Most perceived enhancements are closely related to health-related treatments (Category 1).
• Humans have always been enhanced compared to their ancestors.

Conclusions:

• Dispensing with unrealistic speculation about radical transformation is crucial for ethical discussions.
• A realistic framework, acknowledging that most enhancements are health-related, is needed.
• Ethical debates should focus on practical implications rather than unfounded fears of transhumanism.