Moral enhancement and personal autonomy.
Date
2013-10-03
Authors
Venter, Lucas
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Abstract
In this thesis, I examine the extent to which moral enhancement, the biomedical alteration of an
individual’s disposition to act according to good or bad motives, will in uence his capacity for selfgovernance.
Following a discussion of the salient features of moral enhancement, a plausible list of
conditions against which to measure the compatibility of moral enhancement with personal autonomy
is expounded. e core elements of moral enhancement are weighed against these conditions in order
to establish the ways in which these core elements are compatible with the conditions of personal
autonomy.
I argue that moral enhancement need not lead to a diminishment of personal autonomy, provided it
serves merely as a mechanism to help an agent overcome the deterministic limitations that prevent him
from bringing his lower-order desires into conformity with the higher-order desires that he has arrived
at through independent, thoughtful deliberation.