Beyond Humanity?: The Ethics of Biomedical Enhancement

ISBN-13: 9780199587810 / Angielski / Twarda / 2011 / 256 str.

Allen E Buchanan

Opis

Biotechnologies already on the horizon will enable us to be smarter, have better memories, be stronger and quicker, have more stamina, live longer, be more resistant to diseases, and enjoy richer emotional lives. To some of us, these prospects are heartening; to others, they are dreadful. In Beyond Humanity a leading philosopher offers a powerful and controversial exploration of urgent ethical issues concerning human enhancement. These raise enduring questions about what it is to be human, about individuality, about our relationship to nature, and about what sort of society we should strive to have. Allen E. Buchanan urges that the debate about enhancement needs to be informed by a proper understanding of evolutionary biology, which has discredited the simplistic conceptions of human nature used by many opponents of enhancement. He argues that there are powerful reasons for us to embark on the enhancement enterprise, and no objections to enhancement that are sufficient to outweigh them.

Recenzje

A level-headed discussiion of ethical issues raised by prospects of biotechnological enhancement... A great deal of rhetoric is thrown about. What we need, and what the author brings, is clarity, dividing his analysis into eight sections on character, human nature, consequences, justice, potential abuses and the rish of a new eugenics.

O autorze

Allen Buchanan is Professor of Philosophy at Duke University