ECAP7 Università Vita-Salute San Raffaele
Ethics, Human Enhancement and Genetics Workshop – Sunday, September 4th 2011
Søren Holm Ethics, Human Enhancement and Genetics
Søren Holm BA, MA, MD, PhD, DrMedSci is Danish doctor and philosopher, currently Professor of Clinical Bioethics and Director of the Institute of Medicine, Law, and Bioethics at the University of Manchester, United Kingdom and Adjunct Professor of Medical Ethics at the Center for Medical Ethics, Faculty of Medicine, University of Oslo. Holm holds a masters degree in health care ethics from the University of Manchester and two doctoral degrees in medical ethics from the University of Copenhagen. He is currently a member of the Nuffield Council on Bioethics and a member of the Council’s Working Party on Emerging biotechnologies (report to be published autumn 2012).
abstract
This paper will analyse the ethical issues that arises when we aim at enhancing ourselves or our successors through genetic means. The first part will briefly outline the predictions concerning possible enhancement in the short to medium term future in terms of predicted enhancements and predicted methods. The second part will analyse what we mean when we say that a particular change in the features of a human being constitutes an enhancement. It will be shown that there are several plausible conceptions of enhancement at play in ethical debates about enhancement and that elision between them can lead to confusion. The third part will then consider whether we have ethical reasons to pursue human enhancement and whether any limits of this pursuit can be justified either in terms of specific enhancements or in terms of specific methods. In this section it will inter alia be argued that whether a specific change is good for a particular entity can become radically uncertain.