La biología sintética encierra un enorme potencial transformador de los organismos vivos, incluyendo en un futuro quizás no muy lejano la transformación del propio genoma humano. Son claras las conexiones que pueden establecerse entre este enorme potencial transformador y las pretensiones de los partidarios del biomejoramiento humano. La construcción de genomas completamente sintéticos puede cambiar de forma definitiva e irreversible aspectos fundamentales de la vida humana, quizás hasta el punto de dar lugar a un organismo que difiera de nuestra especie (...) como ahora nosotros podemos diferir de los grandes simios. En este artículo se discuten los principales pros y contras que ha suscitado este debate, señalando algunos de los presupuestos más problemáticos de las propuestas recientes sobre el biomejoramiento humano. (shrink)

Much of the human enhancement literature focuses on the ethical, social, and political challenges we are likely to face in the future. I will focus instead on whether we can make decisions to modify ourselves that are known to be likely to satisfy our preferences. It seems plausible to suppose that, if a subject is deciding whether to select a reasonably safe and morally unproblematic enhancement, the decision will be an easy one. The subject will simply figure out her preferences (...) and decide accordingly. The problem, however, is that there is substantial evidence that we are not very good at predicting what will satisfy our preferences. This is a general problem that applies to many different types of decisions, but I argue that there are additional complications when it comes to making decisions about enhancing ourselves. These arise not only for people interested in selecting enhancements but also for people who choose to abstain. (shrink)

Enormous resources are being invested in genetics, neuroscience and nanotechnology in search vital processes that might provide effective treatment for genetic and severe degenerative disorders, but these goals are still distant. Institutional and military resources are being poured into biotechnological developments for behavioral intervention and cognitive and moral enhancement for persons with difficulties as well as for healthy individuals. Enhancement will increase health and empowerment inequities to the detriment of the disadvantaged. Marked inequality in Latin America calls for an urgent (...) focus on the compromised values at play in biotechnological interventions that will be unavailable to those in need. (shrink)