Public Health Approaches and the Human Enhancement Debate

Some contributors to the cognitive enhancement (CE) debate claim to take a "public health" approach. However, authors who use this stance end up offering very different recommendations for CE. Some argue for bioconservatism, others for transhumanism-all in the name of "public health." This article argues that these inconsistencies occur because a "public health approach" is far too vague. Furthermore, public health approaches are silent on an issue that drives a great deal of the disagreement over CE: differences in anthropology. How one feels about CE will be influenced by whether one believes there are aspects of human nature that we ought never tamper with, or whether human nature is just another rung on the ladder to ever greater forms of life. Whether one sees humanity as something to be preserved or overcome will drive one's view of CE, and this is an issue about which public health as far too little to say.