Browsing by Subject "Biomedical Enhancement"
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Item Human enhancement: a middle way?(2018-12-11) Kaebnick, Gregory E.The prospect of human enhancement--of using medical interventions not just as therapies for disorders and injuries but as tools to make people better than normal--has often seemed to pit hardliners against freethinkers. Opponents of enhancement come across as negative, irrational, and rigid, while proponents look optimistic, reasonable, and flexible. I shall try to recast the debate. Much of the problem for opponents is that they often seem to rest their opposition on very strong and broad claims about human nature. It's possible, though, to have simple and down-to-earth reasons for not liking enhancement. And simpler, down-to-earth reasons can be flexible: they can be overridden or set aside when circumstances warrant. Moral enhancement--that is, enhancement of the capacities for deliberating on, settling on, and acting on moral judgments--provides a challenging test case.Item Is transhumanism a helpful answer to contemporary bioethical challenges?(2014-03-11) Vicini, AndreaTranshumanism is proposed by its advocates as the ultimate solution to struggles and limitations that affect personal and social health and well-being. Such a proposal could appear merely a philosophical exercise. Three current developments, however, make the transhumanist aspirations more realistic: first, the influence of transhumanist ideas and projects in successful leading global companies like Google; second, the rapidly developing robotic technologies and their implementation; third, the forthcoming studies on brain functioning. Both medicine and bioethics have addressed personal and social challenges, locally and globally, by aiming at further humanization, i.e., by focusing on the "human," not on the "transhuman." Should physicians and bioethicists revise their human-centered focus by replacing it with the proposed "transhuman"? Does "transhumanism" promote health and address health-related bioethical challenges?