PHLB09H3 Chap.11 Human Enhancement
Human Enhancement
The closing week
The final week assigns Nick Bostrom and Rebecca Roache's survey of ethical issues in human enhancement, alongside a This American Life episode.
The reading asks whether we should use medicine and technology to improve people beyond their normal healthy state, and it works through life extension, physical, mood and cognitive enhancement, and the selection of children.
A distinction under pressure
Therapy fixes something that has gone wrong; enhancement improves on normal health. The authors argue that this line is too unstable to carry moral weight.
Normal health is an arbitrary point on a bell curve, capacities change over a lifetime, and much ordinary medicine and ordinary life already improves on the normal.
The distinction matters mainly to bioconservatives, who accept therapy but reject enhancement.
Objections area by area
Each area has a leading objection: meaninglessness for radical life extension, fairness and the spirit of sport for physical enhancement, authenticity for mood enhancement, cheating and a two-tier society for cognitive enhancement, and the child's freedom, parental love and eugenics for selection.
The authors answer each and conclude that, subject to safety, children's interests and fair access, there is often good reason to pursue enhancement.
What this chapter covers
- 01
Therapy Versus Enhancement
- 02
Normal Healthy State
- 03
Positional Goods
- 04
Life Extension
- 05
Cognitive Enhancement
- 06
Selecting Children
Worked example · free
Classify an intervention and test the label
- 2Give the definitions of therapy and enhancement.
- 2Show why this case fits both descriptions.
- 2Explain why the authors think the label carries little moral weight.
Key terms
- Bioconservative
- A bioconservative is someone who holds that therapy is permissible but enhancement beyond normal health is not.
- Transhumanist
- A transhumanist is someone who supports enhancement for the same reasons that support therapy.
- Healthspan
- Healthspan is the number of years a person lives in good health, as distinct from total lifespan.
- Procreative Beneficence
- Procreative beneficence is Savulescu's principle, discussed by Bostrom and Roache, that parents should select the child expected to have the best life.
Human Enhancement FAQ
Why do Bostrom and Roache doubt the therapy and enhancement distinction?
They argue that normal health is an arbitrary point on a bell curve, that capacities change across a lifetime, that standard medicine already includes preventive and cosmetic care, and that some interventions such as vaccination are hard to classify. Even if the distinction could be drawn cleanly, a separate argument would be needed to show it matters morally.
What is a positional good?
A positional good is one whose value to its holder depends on others not having it. Height is a common example: if everyone grew three inches, relative positions would not change. The authors argue that the more positional a good is, the less reason society has to promote it, which limits the case for some physical enhancements.
Do the authors support selecting children's traits?
They find no compelling reason to resist it, answering objections about harm to embryos, the child's freedom, parental love and eugenics. They argue that past eugenics programmes were wrong because they were coercive and harmful, unlike voluntary parental choices. They insist, however, that the child's best interests must come first.
Is cognitive enhancement a form of cheating?
Bostrom and Roache say it depends on what the relevant practice is for. If exams exist mainly to rank students against each other, an enhancer gives a positional advantage and invites an arms race. If education aims to equip students with knowledge and skills, an enhancer that helps them learn looks more like a better study aid than cheating.
Exam move
Draw the bell-curve case from memory and label the therapy and enhancement arrows. Make a five-row table of the areas the reading covers, with the leading objection and the authors' reply in each row. Practise the five-step test on two invented cases, one cognitive and one about selecting children.
Then write a short paragraph on whether the positional-goods point applies to cognitive enhancement, using the authors' claim that cognition has value beyond competition.
