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  1. Doing Good with Virtual Reality: The Ethics of Using Virtual Simulations for Improving Human Morality.Jon Rueda - 2023 - In Andrew Kissel & Erick José Ramirez (eds.), Exploring Extended Realities: Metaphysical, Psychological, and Ethical Challenges. Routledge.
    Much of the excitement and concern with virtual reality (VR) has to do with the impact of virtual experiences on our moral conduct in the “real world”. VR technologies offer vivid simulations that may impact prosocial dispositions and abilities or emotions related to morality. Whereas some experiences could facilitate particular moral behaviors, VR could also inculcate bad moral habits or lead to the surreptitious development of nefarious moral traits. In this chapter, I offer an overview of the ethical debate about (...)
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  • A world of difference: The fundamental opposition between transhumanist “welfarism” and disability advocacy.Susan B. Levin - 2023 - Bioethics 37 (8):779-789.
    From the standpoint of disability advocacy, further exploration of the concept of well-being stands to be availing. The notion that “welfarism” about disability, which Julian Savulescu and Guy Kahane debuted, qualifies as helpful is encouraged by their claim that welfarism shares important commitments with that advocacy. As becomes clear when they apply their welfarist frame to procreative decisions, endorsing welfarism would, in fact, sharply undermine it. Savulescu and Kahane's Principle of Procreative Beneficence—which reflects transhumanism, or advocacy of radical bioenhancement—morally requires (...)
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  • The Ethics of Genetic Enhancement: Key Concepts and Future Prospects.Jonathan Anomaly & Tess Johnson - 2016 - In Steve Clarke, Julian Savulescu, C. A. J. Coady, Alberto Giubilini & Sagar Sanyal (eds.), The Ethics of Human Enhancement: Understanding the Debate. Oxford, United Kingdom: Oxford University Press. pp. 143-151.
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  • Enhancing Gender.Hazem Zohny, Brian D. Earp & Julian Savulescu - 2022 - Journal of Bioethical Inquiry 19 (2):225-237.
    Transgender healthcare faces a dilemma. On the one hand, access to certain medical interventions, including hormone treatments or surgeries, where desired, may be beneficial or even vital for some gender dysphoric trans people. But on the other hand, access to medical interventions typically requires a diagnosis, which, in turn, seems to imply the existence of a pathological state—something that many transgender people reject as a false and stigmatizing characterization of their experience or identity. In this paper we argue that developments (...)
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  • Doctor, please make me freer: Capabilities enhancement as a goal of medicine.Jon Rueda, Pablo García-Barranquero & Francisco Lara - 2021 - Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy (3):409-419.
    Biomedical innovations are making possible the enhancement of human capabilities. There are two philosophical stances on the role that medicine should play in this respect. On the one hand, naturalism rejects every medical intervention that goes beyond preventing and treating disease. On the other hand, welfarism advocates enhancements that foster subjective well-being. We will show that both positions have considerable shortcomings. Consequently, we will introduce a third characterization in which therapies and enhancements can be reconciled with the legitimate objectives of (...)
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  • The polysemy of psychotropic drugs: continuity and overlap between neuroenhancement, treatment, prevention, pain relief, and pleasure-seeking in a clinical setting.Eisuke Sakakibara - 2020 - BMC Medical Ethics 21 (1):1-8.
    BackgroundEnhancement involves the use of biomedical technologies to improve human capacities beyond therapeutic purposes. It has been well documented that enhancement is sometimes difficult to distinguish from treatment. As a subtype of enhancement, neuroenhancement aims to improve one’s cognitive or emotional capacities.Main bodyThis article proposes that the notion of neuroenhancement deserves special attention among enhancements in general, because apart from the notion of treatment, it also overlaps with other concepts such as prevention, pain relief, and pleasure seeking. Regarding prevention, patients’ (...)
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  • The Common Good: A Neutral Yardstick?Laurens Landeweerd - 2010 - American Journal of Bioethics Neuroscience 1 (3):42-44.
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  • Commentary: Care, Choice, and the Ethical Imagination.Fred B. Ketchum - 2017 - Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics 26 (4):698-700.
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  • Could Moral Enhancement Interventions be Medically Indicated?Sarah Carter - 2017 - Health Care Analysis 25 (4):338-353.
    This paper explores the position that moral enhancement interventions could be medically indicated in cases where they provide a remedy for a lack of empathy, when such a deficit is considered pathological. In order to argue this claim, the question as to whether a deficit of empathy could be considered to be pathological is examined, taking into account the difficulty of defining illness and disorder generally, and especially in the case of mental health. Following this, Psychopathy and a fictionalised mental (...)
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  • An evaluative conservative case for biomedical enhancement.John Danaher - 2016 - Journal of Medical Ethics 42 (9):611-618.
    It is widely believed that a conservative moral outlook is opposed to biomedical forms of human enhancement. In this paper, I argue that this widespread belief is incorrect. Using Cohen’s evaluative conservatism as my starting point, I argue that there are strong conservative reasons to prioritise the development of biomedical enhancements. In particular, I suggest that biomedical enhancement may be essential if we are to maintain our current evaluative equilibrium (i.e. the set of values that undergird and permeate our current (...)
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  • Not Just “Study Drugs” for the Rich: Stimulants as Moral Tools for Creating Opportunities for Socially Disadvantaged Students.Keisha Shantel Ray - 2016 - American Journal of Bioethics 16 (6):29-38.
    An argument in the cognitive enhancement literature is that using stimulants in populations of healthy but socially disadvantaged individuals mistakenly attributes pathology to nonpathological individuals who experience social inequalities. As the argument goes, using stimulants as cognitive-enhancing drugs to solve the social problem of poorly educated students in inadequate schools misattributes the problem as an individual medical problem, when it is really a collective sociopolitical problem. I challenge this argument on the grounds that not all types of enhancement have to (...)
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  • Cognitive extension, enhancement, and the phenomenology of thinking.Philip J. Walsh - 2017 - Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences 16 (1):33-51.
    This paper brings together several strands of thought from both the analytic and phenomenological traditions in order to critically examine accounts of cognitive enhancement that rely on the idea of cognitive extension. First, I explain the idea of cognitive extension, the metaphysics of mind on which it depends, and how it has figured in recent discussions of cognitive enhancement. Then, I develop ideas from Husserl that emphasize the agential character of thought and the distinctive way that conscious thoughts are related (...)
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  • Neuroethics beyond Normal.John R. Shook & James Giordano - 2016 - Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics 25 (1):121-140.
    Abstract:An integrated and principled neuroethics offers ethical guidelines able to transcend conventional and medical reliance on normality standards. Elsewhere we have proposed four principles for wise guidance on human transformations. Principles like these are already urgently needed, as bio- and cyberenhancements are rapidly emerging. Context matters. Neither “treatments” nor “enhancements” are objectively identifiable apart from performance expectations, social contexts, and civic orders. Lessons learned from disability studies about enablement and inclusion suggest a fresh way to categorize modifications to the body (...)
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  • The Ethics of Human Enhancement.Alberto Giubilini & Sagar Sanyal - 2015 - Philosophy Compass 10 (4):233-243.
    Ethical debate surrounding human enhancement, especially by biotechnological means, has burgeoned since the turn of the century. Issues discussed include whether specific types of enhancement are permissible or even obligatory, whether they are likely to produce a net good for individuals and for society, and whether there is something intrinsically wrong in playing God with human nature. We characterize the main camps on the issue, identifying three main positions: permissive, restrictive and conservative positions. We present the major sub-debates and lines (...)
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  • The Contingency of the "Enhancement" Arguments: The Possible Transition from Ethical Debate to Social and Political Programs.Veselin Mitrovic - 2014 - Journal for the Study of Religions and Ideologies 13 (37):93-124.
    Whatever we speak about enhancement as the, just, one array of the wide range of the bioethical fields, or as the kind of ideological and theoretical field, it is necessary to emphasize relevant ideological and theoretical distinctions between different approaches. Trying to give some fundamental shape to debate among them, as well within themselves, I specified three possible streams with more or less arbitrary boundaries. First one is transhumanistic stream , whose representatives openly promote the practice of genetic, prosthetic and (...)
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  • Ethical Blowback from Emerging Technologies.Patrick Lin - 2010 - Journal of Military Ethics 9 (4):313-331.
    The military is a major driver of technological, world-changing innovations which, like the Internet, often have unpredictable dual uses and widespread civilian impact (?blowback?). Ethical and policy concerns arising from such technologies, therefore, are not limited to military affairs, but can have great implications for society at large as well. This paper will focus on two technology areas making headlines at present: human enhancement technologies and robotics, representing both biological and technological upgrades to the military. The concerns we will raise (...)
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  • Public Attitudes Toward Cognitive Enhancement.Nicholas Fitz, Roland Nadler, Praveena Manogaran, Eugene Chong & Peter Reiner - 2013 - Neuroethics 7 (2):173-188.
    Vigorous debate over the moral propriety of cognitive enhancement exists, but the views of the public have been largely absent from the discussion. To address this gap in our knowledge, four experiments were carried out with contrastive vignettes in order to obtain quantitative data on public attitudes towards cognitive enhancement. The data collected suggest that the public is sensitive to and capable of understanding the four cardinal concerns identified by neuroethicists, and tend to cautiously accept cognitive enhancement even as they (...)
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  • Foundation for a Natural Right to Health Care.Jason T. Eberl, Eleanor K. Kinney & Matthew J. Williams - 2011 - Journal of Medicine and Philosophy 36 (6):537-557.
    Discussions concerning whether there is a natural right to health care may occur in various forms, resulting in policy recommendations for how to implement any such right in a given society. But health care policies may be judged by international standards including the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The rights enumerated in the UDHR are grounded in traditions of moral theory, a philosophical analysis of which is necessary in order to adjudicate the value of specific policies designed to enshrine (...)
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  • Necessary Health Care and Basic Needs: Health Insurance Plans and Essential Benefits. [REVIEW]Andrew Ward & Pamela Jo Johnson - 2013 - Health Care Analysis 21 (4):355-371.
    According to HealthCare.gov, by improving access to quality health for all Americans, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) will reduce disparities in health insurance coverage. One way this will happen under the provisions of the ACA is by creating a new health insurance marketplace (a health insurance exchange) by 2014 in which “all people will have a choice for quality, affordable health insurance even if a job loss, job switch, move or illness occurs”. This does not mean that everyone will have (...)
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  • Is Human Enhancement also a Personal Matter?Vincent Menuz, Thierry Hurlimann & Béatrice Godard - 2013 - Science and Engineering Ethics 19 (1):161-177.
    Emerging technologies are increasingly used in an attempt to “enhance the human body and/or mind” beyond the contemporary standards that characterize human beings. Yet, such standards are deeply controversial and it is not an easy task to determine whether the application of a given technology to an individual and its outcome can be defined as a human enhancement or not. Despite much debate on its potential or actual ethical and social impacts, human enhancement is not subject to any consensual definition. (...)
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  • Aging research: Priorities and aggregation.Colin Farrelly - 2008 - Public Health Ethics 1 (3):258-267.
    Department of Political Studies, Queen's University, 99 University Avenue, Kingston, Ontario, Canada, K7L 3N6. Email: farrelly{at}queensu.ca ' + u + '@' + d + ' '//--> Abstract Should we invest more public funding in basic aging research that could lead to medical interventions that permit us to safely and effectively retard human aging? In this paper I make the case for answering in the affirmative. I examine, and critique, what I call the Fairness Objection to making aging research a greater (...)
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  • Gene–environment interaction: why genetic enhancement might never be distributed fairly.Sinead Prince - 2024 - Journal of Medical Ethics 50 (4):272-277.
    Ethical debates around genetic enhancement tend to include an argument that the technology will eventually be fairly accessible once available. That we can fairly distribute genetic enhancement has become a moral defence of genetic enhancement. Two distribution solutions are argued for, the first being equal distribution. Equality of access is generally believed to be the fairest and most just method of distribution. Second, equitable distribution: providing genetic enhancements to reduce social inequalities. In this paper, I make two claims. I first (...)
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  • Is considerable life extension an enhancement?R. Rantanen - 2014 - Global Bioethics 25 (2):103-113.
    The purpose of this paper is to look into the question of whether considerable life extension should be seen as a form of human enhancement. Human enhancement, generally, refers to enhancing physical, psychological, and moral human capacities beyond the average or “normal” level. Much of the recent literature focusing on considerable life extension has been related to the human enhancement debate. I will examine whether considerable life extension and human enhancement are connected. I argue that they are not connected to (...)
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  • Should We Punish Responsible Drinkers? Prevention, Paternalism and Categorization in Public Health.Stephen John - 2018 - Public Health Ethics 11 (1):35-44.
    Many public debates over policies aimed at curbing alcohol consumption start from an assumption that policies should not affect ‘responsible’ drinkers. In this article, I examine this normative claim, which I call prudentialism. In the first part of the article, I argue that prudentialism is both a demanding and distinctive doctrine, which philosophers should consider seriously. In the middle sections, I examine the relationship between prudentialism and two familiar topics in public health ethics: the prevention paradox and the relationship between (...)
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  • Oxytocin, Empathy and Human Enhancement.Francisco Lara - 2017 - Theoria. An International Journal for Theory, History and Foundations of Science 32 (3):367.
    This paper considers, firstly, to what extent the administration of oxytocin can augment the capacity of empathy in human beings; and secondly, whether or not such practice ought to be allowed. In relation to the latter, the author develops an argument in favour of this intervention by virtue of its consistency with the belief that, if a therapeutic treatment is to be considered acceptable, it is essential that it maximizes the well-being of those affected and that it does not compromise (...)
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  • Limits to human enhancement: nature, disease, therapy or betterment?Bjørn Hofmann - 2017 - BMC Medical Ethics 18 (1):56.
    New technologies facilitate the enhancement of a wide range of human dispositions, capacities, or abilities. While it is argued that we need to set limits to human enhancement, it is unclear where we should find resources to set such limits. Traditional routes for setting limits, such as referring to nature, the therapy-enhancement distinction, and the health-disease distinction, turn out to have some shortcomings. However, upon closer scrutiny the concept of enhancement is based on vague conceptions of what is to be (...)
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  • (1 other version)Normality, Therapy, and Enhancement.Alberto Giubilini - 2015 - Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics 24 (3):347-354.
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  • Reframing the Disease Debate and Defending the Biostatistical Theory.Peter H. Schwartz - 2014 - Journal of Medicine and Philosophy 39 (6):572-589.
    Similarly to other accounts of disease, Christopher Boorse’s Biostatistical Theory (BST) is generally presented and considered as conceptual analysis, that is, as making claims about the meaning of currently used concepts. But conceptual analysis has been convincingly critiqued as relying on problematic assumptions about the existence, meaning, and use of concepts. Because of these problems, accounts of disease and health should be evaluated not as claims about current meaning, I argue, but instead as proposals about how to define and use (...)
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  • Ethical considerations in the framing of the cognitive enhancement debate.Simon M. Outram - 2011 - Neuroethics 5 (2):173-184.
    Over the past few years the use of stimulants such as methylphenidate and modafinil among the student population has attracted considerable debate in the pages of bioethics journals. Under the rubric of cognitive enhancement, bioethicists have discussed this use of stimulants—along with future technologies of enhancement—and have launched a sometimes forceful debate of such practices. In the following paper, it is argued that even if we focus solely upon current practices, the term cognitive enhancement encompasses a wide range of ethical (...)
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  • The Democratization of Facial Feminization Surgery and the Removal of Artificial Barriers.Richard Gibson - 2018 - American Journal of Bioethics 18 (12):29-31.
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  • Etiske utfordringer med nyere reproduksjonsteknologi.Bjørn Hofmann - 2017 - Etikk I Praksis - Nordic Journal of Applied Ethics 2 (2):5-26.
    Moderne teknologi gir fantastiske muligheter for menneskelig formering. Mange som tidligere ikke kunne få barn, eller som fikk syke barn, kan nå hjelpes. Samtidig reiser mulighetene en rekke vanskelige moralske spørsmål, som ikke har enkle svar – ofte fordi de bunner i grunnleggende etiske motsetninger. Denne artikkelen gir en kort oversikt over de mulighetene som tre typer teknologier gir: assisterende, seleksjonsfremmende og egenskapsendrende teknologier. Deretter peker den på noen av de viktige moralske spørsmålene som disse teknologiene reiser i betydningen «Hvordan (...)
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  • Ethics of Human Enhancement: 25 Questions & Answers.Fritz Allhoff, Patrick Lin, James Moor & John Weckert - 2010 - Studies in Ethics, Law, and Technology 4 (1).
    This paper presents the principal findings from a three-year research project funded by the US National Science Foundation on ethics of human enhancement technologies. To help untangle this ongoing debate, we have organized the discussion as a list of questions and answers, starting with background issues and moving to specific concerns, including: freedom & autonomy, health & safety, fairness & equity, societal disruption, and human dignity. Each question-and-answer pair is largely self-contained, allowing the reader to skip to those issues of (...)
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  • My Brain Made Me Moral: Moral Performance Enhancement for Realists.John R. Shook - 2016 - Neuroethics 9 (3):199-211.
    How should ethics help decide the morality of enhancing morality? The idea of morally enhancing the human brain quickly emerged when the promise of cognitive enhancement in general began to seem realizable. However, on reflection, achieving moral enhancement must be limited by the practical challenges to any sort of cognitive modification, along with obstacles particular to morality’s bases in social cognition. The objectivity offered by the brain sciences cannot ensure the technological achievement of moral bioenhancement for humanity-wide application. Additionally, any (...)
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  • Intervening in the brain: Changing psyche and society.Dirk Hartmann, Gerard Boer, Jörg Fegert, Thorsten Galert, Reinhard Merkel, Bart Nuttin & Steffen Rosahl - 2007 - Springer.
    In recent years, neuroscience has been a particularly prolific discipline stimulating many innovative treatment approaches in medicine. However, when it comes to the brain, new techniques of intervention do not always meet with a positive public response, in spite of promising therapeutic benefits. The reason for this caution clearly is the brain’s special importance as “organ of the mind”. As such it is widely held to be the origin of mankind’s unique position among living beings. Likewise, on the level of (...)
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  • The Dynamics of the Treatment-enhancement Distinction: ADHD as a Case Study.Maartje Schermer - 2007 - Philosophica 79 (1):25-37.
    A central issue in the ethical debate on psychopharmacological enhancers concerns the distinction between therapy and enhancement. Although from a theoretical point of view it is difficult to make a clear-cut distinction between treatment on the one hand, and enhancement on the other, in medical practice and policy debates the counter-positioning of therapy to enhancement is clearly at work. Especially pharmaceutical companies have an interest in occupying the "grey" area between normal and abnormal, treatment and enhancement. This article discusses the (...)
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  • Implant ethics.S. O. Hansson - 2005 - Journal of Medical Ethics 31 (9):519-525.
    Implant ethics is defined here as the study of ethical aspects of the lasting introduction of technological devices into the human body. Whereas technological implants relieve us of some of the ethical problems connected with transplantation, other difficulties arise that are in need of careful analysis. A systematic approach to implant ethics is proposed. The major specific problems are identified as those concerning end of life issues (turning off devices), enhancement of human capabilities beyond normal levels, mental changes and personal (...)
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  • The Better I Can Be: In Defence of Human Enhancement for a New Genetic Equality.Vera Lúcia Carapeto Raposo - 2022 - Canadian Journal of Bioethics / Revue canadienne de bioéthique 5 (2).
    The main objection to genetic enhancement is that it will create a “genetic apartheid,” deepening existing inequalities. This paper offers considerations that can weaken the inequality argument against genetic enhancement. First, I question the dichotomy of treatment versus enhancement since the differences between the two are unclear. Second, I argue that human enhancement is part of human nature and that there is no sound reason to accept it in other domains while rejecting it in genetics. The paper also demonstrates that (...)
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  • Freedom of thought at the ethical frontier of law & science.Marcus Moore - 2022 - Ethics and Behavior 32 (6):510-531.
    ABSTRACT Some of the most compelling contemporary ethical questions surround 21st Century neuroscientific technologies. Among these, neurocognitive intervention technologies allow an unprecedented ability to alter thought. Concerns exist about their impact on individual freedom, behavior and personhood. They could also distort society, eroding core values of dignity, equality, and diversity. Potent laws are needed to anchor regulation in this rising field. The article explores how the long-neglected human right of Freedom of Thought might protect the integrity of the mind at (...)
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  • Understanding the Relationship Between Disability and Enhancement.Lysette Chaproniere - 2022 - Pacific Philosophical Quarterly 104 (1):30-54.
    This paper assesses how views of disability and enhancement can combine. It is hard to maintain that disabilities and enhancements are both undesirable. Disability-positive views can combine with support for or opposition to enhancement, but not with the view that enhanced traits reliably increase well-being. It is consistent to hold that disability is bad and enhancement good; the plausibility of this combination depends on whether it is better to have more options and fewer limitations. Understanding these combined positions makes it (...)
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  • From assistive to enhancing technology: should the treatment-enhancement distinction apply to future assistive and augmenting technologies?Francesca Minerva & Alberto Giubilini - 2017 - Journal of Medical Ethics:medethics-2016-104014.
    The treatment-enhancement distinction is often used to delineate acceptable and unacceptable medical interventions. It is likely that future assistive and augmenting technologies will also soon develop to a level that they might be considered to provide users, in particular those with disabilities, with abilities that go beyond natural human limits, and become in effect an enhancing technology. In this paper, we describe how this process might take place, and discuss the moral implications of such developments. We argue that such developments (...)
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  • Aging as Disease.Gunnar De Winter - 2015 - Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy 18 (2):237-243.
    In this paper, I will argue that ageing can be construed as disease. First, the concept of disease is discussed, where the distinction is made between two lines of thought, an objectivist and a subjectivist one. After determining the disease conception to be used throughout the argument, it is proposed that senescence could be seen as disease. Three common counterarguments are discussed, none of which appears strong enough to effectively counter the advocated view. In the third section, two potential implications (...)
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  • Be careful what you wish for? Theoretical and ethical aspects of wish-fulfilling medicine.Alena M. Buyx - 2008 - Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy 11 (2):133-143.
    There is a growing tendency for medicine to be used not to prevent or heal illnesses, but to fulfil individual personal wishes such as wishes for enhanced work performance, better social skills, children with specific characteristics, stress relief, a certain appearance or a better sex life. While recognizing that the subject of wish-fulfilling medicine may vary greatly and that it may employ very different techniques, this article argues that wish-fulfilling medicine can be described as a cohesive phenomenon with distinctive features. (...)
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  • Health, Happiness and Human Enhancement—Dealing with Unexpected Effects of Deep Brain Stimulation.Maartje Schermer - 2011 - Neuroethics 6 (3):435-445.
    Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) is a treatment involving the implantation of electrodes into the brain. Presently, it is used for neurological disorders like Parkinson’s disease, but indications are expanding to psychiatric disorders such as depression, addiction and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD). Theoretically, it may be possible to use DBS for the enhancement of various mental functions. This article discusses a case of an OCD patient who felt very happy with the DBS treatment, even though her symptoms were not reduced. First, (...)
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  • Untangling the debate: The ethics of human enhancement. [REVIEW]Patrick Lin & Fritz Allhoff - 2008 - NanoEthics 2 (3):251-264.
    Human enhancement, in which nanotechnology is expected to play a major role, continues to be a highly contentious ethical debate, with experts on both sides calling it the single most important issue facing science and society in this brave, new century. This paper is a broad introduction to the symposium herein that explores a range of perspectives related to that debate. We will discuss what human enhancement is and its apparent contrast to therapy; and we will begin to tease apart (...)
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  • Modular Ontologies for Genetically Modified People and their Bioethical Implications.Derek So, Robert Sladek & Yann Joly - 2024 - NanoEthics 18 (2):1-35.
    Participants in the long-running bioethical debate over human germline genetic modification (HGGM) tend to imagine future people abstractly and on the basis of conventionalized characteristics familiar from science fiction, such as intelligence, disease resistance and height. In order to distinguish these from scientifically meaningful terms like “phenotype” and “trait,” this article proposes the term “persemes” to describe the units of difference for hypothetical people. In the HGGM debate, persemes are frequently conceptualized as similar, modular entities, like building blocks to be (...)
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  • Acceptability of Neuroscientific Interventions in Education.J. M. Dubinsky, S. Varma & A. Schmied - 2021 - Science and Engineering Ethics 27 (4):1-27.
    Researchers are increasingly applying neuroscience technologies that probe or manipulate the brain to improve educational outcomes. However, their use remains fraught with ethical controversies. Here, we investigate the acceptability of neuroscience applications to educational practice in two groups of young adults: those studying bioscience who will be driving future basic neuroscience research and technology transfer, and those studying education who will be choosing among neuroscience-derived applications for their students. Respondents rated the acceptability of six scenarios describing neuroscience applications to education (...)
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  • Is cognitive enhacement harmful? Personal affectation and independent value points of view.Daniel Loewe - 2017 - Filosofia Unisinos 18 (3):117-129.
    The paper discusses criticisms against pharmacological cognitive enhancement from a liberal perspective. The criticisms point to the consequences of cognitive enhancement in third parties and in the agents, as well as in independent values. According to the article, these criticisms are not convincing. On the contrary, it argues that under certain assumptions there are good reasons in favor of free access to cognitive enhancement.
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  • Cognitive-Enhancing Drugs, Behavioral Training and the Mechanism of Cognitive Enhancement.Emma Peng Chien - 2013 - In Elisabeth Hildt & Andreas G. Franke (eds.), Cognitive Enhancement: An Interdisciplinary Perspective. Springer. pp. 139-144.
    In this chapter, I propose the mechanism of cognitive enhancement based on studies of cognitive-enhancing drugs and behavioral training. I argue that there are mechanistic differences between cognitive-enhancing drugs and behavioral training due to their different enhancing effects. I also suggest possible mechanisms for cognitive-enhancing drugs and behavioral training and for the synergistic effects of their simultaneous application.
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  • Substantial Life Extension and the Fair Distribution of Healthspans.Christopher S. Wareham - 2016 - Journal of Medicine and Philosophy 41 (5):521-539.
    One of the strongest objections to the development and use of substantially life-extending interventions is that they would exacerbate existing unjust disparities of healthy lifespans between rich and poor members of society. In both popular opinion and ethical theory, this consequence is sometimes thought to justify a ban on life-prolonging technologies. However, the practical and ethical drawbacks of banning receive little attention, and the viability of alternative policies is seldom considered. Moreover, where ethicists do propose alternatives, there is scant effort (...)
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  • Enhancement, disability and the riddle of the relevant circumstances.Hazem Zohny - 2016 - Journal of Medical Ethics 42 (9).
    The welfarist account of enhancement and disability holds enhanced and disabled states on a spectrum: the former are biological or psychological states that increase the chances of a person leading a good life in the relevant set of circumstances, while the latter decrease those chances. Here, I focus on a particular issue raised by this account: what should we count as part of an individual’s relevant set of circumstances when thinking about enhanced and disabled states? Specifically, is social prejudice relevant (...)
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