Chapter Summary
In this chapter, the Presidential Commission on Bioethics identifies several possible problems with using biotechnologies for enhancement, rather than therapeutic, purposes. Several of the potential difficulties are familiar, in that they arise regarding health care and medical technologies generally — for example, safety, justice, and coercion. Several others are more particular to the power that novel biotechnologies provide and the motivation for and practice of trying to use that technology to make ourselves better than well. These include detrimental impacts on the parent-child relationship, undermining human dignity, compromising individuality and identity, and fostering an impoverished understanding of human flourishing.
This chapter is excerpted from President’s Council on Bioethics (2003) Beyond Therapy: Biotechnology and the Pursuit of Happiness (Washington, DC).
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Works Cited
H. Jonas (1992) “The Blessings and Burdens of Mortality”, Hastings Center Report, January/February 1992.
L. Kass (2003) ‘Beyond Therapy: Biotechnology and the Pursuit of Human Improvement’ prepared for the President’s Council on Bioethics, Washington, D.C.
L. Kass (2002) ‘L’Chaim and Its Limits: Why Not Immortality’, in Life, Liberty, and the Defense of Dignity: The Challenge for Bioethics, (San Francisco: Encounter Books).
M. J. Sandel (2002) ‘What’s Wrong with Enhancement’, prepared for the President’s Council on Bioethics, Washington, D.C.
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© 2014 United States President’s Council on Bioethics
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United States President’s Council on Bioethics. (2014). “Beyond Therapy”. In: Sandler, R.L. (eds) Ethics and Emerging Technologies. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137349088_14
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137349088_14
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
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