This issue of The Journal of Medicine and Philosophy brings together an international group of scholars from Hong Kong, Mainland China, and North America, critically to explore whole-body/head transplantation. The proposed procedure raises significant philosophical, ethical, and social/political questions. For example, assuming transplant is successful, who survives the surgery? Does personal identity necessarily follow the head? The contributors to this special thematic issue explore the nature and ground of personal identity, what it would mean to preserve personal identity, given such (...) a significant set of physical changes, as well as the morality of such a procedure. As the authors make clear, careful conceptual philosophical analysis is essential for understanding whether whole-body/head transplantation is a life-saving/life-enhancing technological innovation, or a bioethical morass that should not be attempted. How we come to terms with such conceptual and moral concerns will have a significant impact on the future of medicine and medical technological innovation. (shrink)

인간의 도덕적 향상을 허용해야 하는지의 문제는 신경과학 시대에서 우리가 직면한 대표적인 윤리적 쟁점 가운데 하나이다. 도덕적 향상에 관한 대립적 입장은 생명보수주의와 초인본주의의 양 극단으로 분류된다. 생명보수주의는 인간의 도덕적 향상이 결국엔 인간다음과 인간 본성을 파괴할 위험성이 크다고 경고한다. 이와는 달리 초인본주의는 인류의 도덕적 향상은 더 나은 삶의 영위를 위해 필수불가결한 것이라고 주장한다. 생명보수주의는 인간 본성의 내재적 가치를 주장하지만, 초인본주의는 인간 본성은 문제가 많으므로 개선을 필요로 한다고 본다. 이에 이 논문에서는 초인본주의의 기본 개념과 철학, 초인본주의에서의 도덕적 향상 논리 및 생명정치학적 입장에 대하여 (...) 살펴본 후에, 초인본주의의 도전에 대응하기 위한 방안을 제안하고자 하였다. 이를 위해 이 논문에서는 초인본주의에서의 도덕적 향상 논리가 지닌 문제점을 지적함과 동시에 인간의 도덕성은 기술적 개입이 아닌 도덕교육을 통해 함양될 필요가 있음을 역설하였다. (shrink)

We are cyborgs. We are transhumans; transitory people that exist in a luminal phase, waiting for a transfer to the posthuman world. Our children do not need education; it is cyborgization that ensures their development. This is the idea of transhumanistic philosophy, a thoroughly pedagogic idea. In this paper, I will present basic transhumanism ideas and stress the criticism on education created within this philosophy. This text is neither a systematic study on transhumanism nor a pedagogical analysis. It is merely (...) an attempt at showing teachers how education can be deprecated in modern philosophies that are technologically-oriented. (shrink)

In the works devoted to the phenomenon of transhumanism, it is widely recognized that philosophy of the Enlightenment had a great intellectual influence on the formation of transhumanism. Yet, this article states that the ideas of Enlightenment philosophy can be reasonably treated as not only consisting the conceptual transhumanism core but also as being a source of its internal contradictions. The paper defends the position that transhumanism in general is an intrinsically controversial project and introduces the premises for this contradiction (...) – the basic anthropological views inherited from philosophy of the Enlightenment. Finally, the article questions the status of transhumanism as a techno-scientific program and states it to be an ideologically engaged project in anthropological engineering, which, in its turn, is devoid of any clear theoretical and practical outline. (shrink)

The ends of medicine are sometimes construed simply as promotion of health, treatment and prevention of disease, and alleviation of pain. Practitioners might agree that this simple formulation captures much of what medical practice is about. But while the ends of medicine may seem simple or even obvious, the essays in this issue demonstrate the wide variety of philosophical questions and issues associated with the ends of medicine. They raise questions about how to characterize terms like “health” and “disease”; whether (...) medicine’s goals should be extended to include enhancement beyond normal human function; and whether the ends of medicine are binding on those involved in health care outside of professional medicine, such as pharmaceutical companies. They also give philosophical attention to patient experiences, and so raise questions about whether current practices achieve the ends of medicine from the perspective of the patient. Together these essays demonstrate the important role played by a conception of medicine’s ends in a wide variety of issues and problems in the philosophy and ethics of medicine. (shrink)