Human enhancement and supra-personal moral status
Philosophical Studies 162 (3):473-497 (2013)
Abstract
Several authors have speculated that (1) the pharmaceutical, genetic or other technological enhancement of human mental capacities could result in the creation of beings with greater moral status than persons, and (2) the creation of such beings would harm ordinary, unenhanced humans, perhaps by reducing their immunity to permissible harm. These claims have been taken to ground moral objections to the unrestrained pursuit of human enhancement. In recent work, Allen Buchanan responds to these objections by questioning both (1) and (2). I argue that Buchanan’s response fails. However, I then outline an alternative response. This response starts from the thought that, though moral status-increasing human enhancements might render ordinary, unenhanced humans less immune to permissible harm, they need not worsen the overall distribution of this immunity across beings. In the course of the argument I explore the relation between mental capacity and moral status and between moral status and immunity to permissible harmAuthor's Profile
DOI
10.1007/s11098-011-9778-2
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Citations of this work
The Morality of Moral Neuroenhancement.Thomas Douglas - forthcoming - In Clausen Jens & Levy Neil (eds.), Handbook of Neuroethics. Springer.
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Cochlear Implantation, Enhancements, Transhumanism and Posthumanism: Some Human Questions.Joseph Lee - 2016 - Science and Engineering Ethics 22 (1):67-92.
Are superintelligent robots entitled to human rights?John-Stewart Gordon - 2022 - Ratio 35 (3):181-193.
The harms of status enhancement could be compensated or outweighed: a response to Agar.Thomas Douglas - 2013 - Journal of Medical Ethics 39 (2):75-76.
References found in this work
Sources of the Self: The Making of the Modern Identity.Charles Taylor - 1989 - Harvard University Press.
The Second Person Standpoint: Morality, Respect, and Accountability.Stephen Darwall - 1996 - Harvard University Press.
Sources of the Self: The Making of the Modern Identity.Charles Taylor - 1989 - Cambridge University Press.