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  1. A Theory of Justice: Original Edition.John Rawls - 2005 - Belknap Press.
    Though the revised edition of A Theory of Justice, published in 1999, is the definitive statement of Rawls's view, so much of the extensive literature on Rawls's theory refers to the first edition. This reissue makes the first edition once again available for scholars and serious students of Rawls's work.
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  • (3 other versions)Freedom of the will and the concept of a person.Harry G. Frankfurt - 1971 - Journal of Philosophy 68 (1):5-20.
    It is my view that one essential difference between persons and other creatures is to be found in the structure of a person's will. Besides wanting and choosing and being moved to do this or that, men may also want to have certain desires and motives. They are capable of wanting to be different, in their preferences and purposes, from what they are. Many animals appear to have the capacity for what I shall call "first-order desires" or "desires of the (...)
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  • The Future of Human Nature.Jurgen Habermas - 2004 - Philosophy 79 (309):483-486.
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  • In defense of posthuman dignity.Nick Bostrom - 2005 - Bioethics 19 (3):202–214.
    Positions on the ethics of human enhancement technologies can be (crudely) characterized as ranging from transhumanism to bioconservatism. Transhumanists believe that human enhancement technologies should be made widely available, that individuals should have broad discretion over which of these technologies to apply to themselves, and that parents should normally have the right to choose enhancements for their children-to-be. Bioconservatives (whose ranks include such diverse writers as Leon Kass, Francis Fukuyama, George Annas, Wesley Smith, Jeremy Rifkin, and Bill McKibben) are generally (...)
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  • The Ethics of Germline Gene Editing.Gyngell Christopher, Douglas Thomas & Savulescu Julian - 2017 - Journal of Applied Philosophy 34 (4):498-513.
    Germline Gene Editing has enormous potential both as a research tool and a therapeutic intervention. While other types of gene editing are relatively uncontroversial, GGE has been strongly resisted. In this article, we analyse the ethical arguments for and against pursuing GGE by allowing and funding its development. We argue there is a strong case for pursuing GGE for the prevention of disease. We then examine objections that have been raised against pursuing GGE and argue that these fail. We conclude (...)
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  • Autonomy and Enhancement.G. Owen Schaefer, Guy Kahane & Julian Savulescu - 2013 - Neuroethics 7 (2):123-136.
    Some have objected to human enhancement on the grounds that it violates the autonomy of the enhanced. These objections, however, overlook the interesting possibility that autonomy itself could be enhanced. How, exactly, to enhance autonomy is a difficult problem due to the numerous and diverse accounts of autonomy in the literature. Existing accounts of autonomy enhancement rely on narrow and controversial conceptions of autonomy. However, we identify one feature of autonomy common to many mainstream accounts: reasoning ability. Autonomy can then (...)
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  • The reversal test: Eliminating status quo bias in applied ethics.Nick Bostrom & Toby Ord - 2006 - Ethics 116 (4):656-679.
    Suppose that we develop a medically safe and affordable means of enhancing human intelligence. For concreteness, we shall assume that the technology is genetic engineering (either somatic or germ line), although the argument we will present does not depend on the technological implementation. For simplicity, we shall speak of enhancing “intelligence” or “cognitive capacity,” but we do not presuppose that intelligence is best conceived of as a unitary attribute. Our considerations could be applied to specific cognitive abilities such as verbal (...)
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  • Human genetic enhancements: A transhumanist perspective.Nick Bostrom - 2003 - Journal of Value Inquiry 37 (4):493-506.
    Transhumanism is a loosely defined movement that has developed gradually over the past two decades. It promotes an interdisciplinary approach to understanding and evaluating the opportunities for enhancing the human condition and the human organism opened up by the advancement of technology. Attention is given to both present technologies, like genetic engineering and information technology, and anticipated future ones, such as molecular nanotechnology and artificial intelligence.
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  • (1 other version)The capability approach.Ingrid Robeyns - 2010 - The Philosophers' Magazine 50 (50):92-93.
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  • Genetic Dilemmas and the Child's Right to an Open Future.Dena S. Davis - 1997 - Hastings Center Report 27 (2):7-15.
    Although deeply committed to the model of nondirective counseling, most genetic counselors enter the profession with certain assumptions about health and disability—for example, that it is preferable to be a hearing person than a deaf person. Thus, most genetic counselors are deeply troubled when parents with certain disabilities ask for assistance in having a child who shares their disability. This ethical challenge benefits little from viewing it as a conflict between beneficence and autonomy. The challenge is better recast as a (...)
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  • An ethical pathway for gene editing.Julian Savulescu & Peter Singer - 2019 - Bioethics 33 (2):221-222.
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  • Genome editing and assisted reproduction: curing embryos, society or prospective parents?Giulia Cavaliere - 2018 - Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy 21 (2):215-225.
    This paper explores the ethics of introducing genome-editing technologies as a new reproductive option. In particular, it focuses on whether genome editing can be considered a morally valuable alternative to preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD). Two arguments against the use of genome editing in reproduction are analysed, namely safety concerns and germline modification. These arguments are then contrasted with arguments in favour of genome editing, in particular with the argument of the child’s welfare and the argument of parental reproductive autonomy. In (...)
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  • Germline genome editing versus preimplantation genetic diagnosis: Is there a case in favour of germline interventions?Robert Ranisch - 2019 - Bioethics 34 (1):60-69.
    CRISPR is widely considered to be a disruptive technology. However, when it comes to the most controversial topic, germline genome editing (GGE), there is no consensus on whether this technology has any substantial advantages over existing procedures such as embryo selection after in vitro fertilization (IVF) and preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD). Answering this question, however, is crucial for evaluating whether the pursuit of further research and development on GGE is justified. This paper explores the question from both a clinical and (...)
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  • Procedural Moral Enhancement.G. Owen Schaefer & Julian Savulescu - 2016 - Neuroethics 12 (1):73-84.
    While philosophers are often concerned with the conditions for moral knowledge or justification, in practice something arguably less demanding is just as, if not more, important – reliably making correct moral judgments. Judges and juries should hand down fair sentences, government officials should decide on just laws, members of ethics committees should make sound recommendations, and so on. We want such agents, more often than not and as often as possible, to make the right decisions. The purpose of this paper (...)
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  • Justice, Fairness, and Enhancement.Julian Savulescu - 2006 - Annals of New York Academy of Science 1093:321-338.
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  • Enhancement, Autonomy, and Authenticity.Niklas Juth - 2011 - In Julian Savulescu, Ruud ter Meulen & Guy Kahane (eds.), Enhancing Human Capacities. Blackwell. pp. 34–48.
    This chapter discusses some concerns regarding the effects of enhancement technologies on autonomy and authenticity, insofar as authenticity relates to autonomy. As a preliminary, it describes how enhancement and autonomy should be understood in this context along with some examples of enhancement. The chapter moves on to explain why enhancement can promote autonomy. Three types of concerns regarding the effect of enhancement technologies on autonomy are raised: (i) that medical technologies should not be used to enhance autonomy, since this is (...)
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  • Multiplex parenting: IVG and the generations to come.César Palacios-González, John Harris & Giuseppe Testa - 2014 - Journal of Medical Ethics 40 (11):752-758.
    Recent breakthroughs in stem cell differentiation and reprogramming suggest that functional human gametes could soon be created in vitro. While the ethical debate on the uses of in vitro generated gametes (IVG) was originally constrained by the fact that they could be derived only from embryonic stem cell lines, the advent of somatic cell reprogramming, with the possibility to easily derive human induced pluripotent stem cells from any individual, affords now a major leap in the feasibility of IVG derivation and (...)
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  • Health, vital goals, and central human capabilities.Sridhar Venkatapuram - 2012 - Bioethics 27 (5):271-279.
    I argue for a conception of health as a person's ability to achieve or exercise a cluster of basic human activities. These basic activities are in turn specified through free-standing ethical reasoning about what constitutes a minimal conception of a human life with equal human dignity in the modern world. I arrive at this conception of health by closely following and modifying Lennart Nordenfelt's theory of health which presents health as the ability to achieve vital goals. Despite its strengths I (...)
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  • Blurring the germline: Genome editing and transgenerational epigenetic inheritance.Tim Lewens - 2019 - Bioethics 34 (1):7-15.
    Sperm, eggs and embryos are made up of more than genes, and there are indications that changes to non‐genetic structures in these elements of the germline can also be inherited. It is, therefore, a mistake to treat phrases like ‘germline inheritance’ and ‘genetic inheritance’ as simple synonyms, and bioethical discussion should expand its focus beyond alterations to the genome when considering the ethics of germline modification. Moreover, additional research on non‐genetic inheritance draws attention to a variety of means whereby differences (...)
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  • Procreative Altruism: Beyond Individualism in Reproductive Selection.Thomas Douglas & Katrien Devolder - 2013 - Journal of Medicine and Philosophy 38 (4):400-419.
    Existing debate on procreative selection focuses on the well-being of the future child. However, selection decisions can also have significant effects on the well-being of others. Moreover, these effects may run in opposing directions; some traits conducive to the well-being of the selected child may be harmful to others, whereas other traits that limit the child’s well-being may preserve or increase that of others. Prominent selection principles defended to date instruct parents to select a child, of the possible children they (...)
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  • Sugar, Taxes, & Choice.Carissa Véliz, Hannah Maslen, Michael Essman, Lindsey Smith Taillie & Julian Savulescu - 2019 - Hastings Center Report 49 (6):22-31.
    Population obesity and associated morbidities pose significant public health and economic burdens in the United Kingdom, United States, and globally. As a response, public health initiatives often seek to change individuals’ unhealthy behavior, with the dual aims of improving their health and conserving health care resources. One such initiative—taxes on sugar‐sweetened beverages (SSB)—has sparked considerable ethical debate. Prominent in the debate are arguments seeking to demonstrate the supposed impermissibility of SSB taxes and similar policies on the grounds that they interfere (...)
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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 problem with reproductive freedom. Procreation beyond procreators’ interests.Giulia Cavaliere - 2020 - Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy 23 (1):131-140.
    Reproductive freedom plays a pivotal role in debates on the ethics of procreation. This moral principle protects people’s interests in procreative matters and allows them discretion over whether to have children, the number of children they have and, to a certain extent, the type of children they have. Reproductive freedom’s theoretical and political emphasis on people’s autonomy and well-being is grounded in an individual-centred framework for discussing the ethics of procreation. It protects procreators’ interests and significantly reduces the permissible grounds (...)
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  • Human freedom and enhancement.Jan-Christoph Heilinger & Katja Crone - 2014 - Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy 17 (1):13-21.
    Ideas about freedom and related concepts like autonomy and self-determination play a prominent role in the moral debate about human enhancement interventions. However, there is not a single understanding of freedom available, and arguments referring to freedom are simultaneously used to argue both for and against enhancement interventions. This gives rise to misunderstandings and polemical arguments. The paper attempts to disentangle the different distinguishable concepts, classifies them and shows how they relate to one another in order to allow for a (...)
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  • Shaping future children: Parental rights and societal interests.Dan W. Brock - 2005 - Journal of Political Philosophy 13 (4):377–398.
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  • In defence of posthuman vulnerability.Belen Liedo Fernandez & Jon Rueda - 2021 - Scientia et Fides 9 (1):215-239.
    Transhumanism is a challenging movement that invites us to rethink what defines humanity, including what we value and regret the most about our existence. Vulnerability is a key concept that require thorough philosophical scrutiny concerning transhumanist proposals. Vulnerability can refer to a universal condition of human life or, rather, to the specific exposure to certain harms due to particular situations. Even if we are all vulnerable in the first sense, there are also different sources and levels of vulnerability depending on (...)
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  • Reproductive Choice, Enhancement, and the Moral Continuum Argument.E. Malmqvist - 2014 - Journal of Medicine and Philosophy 39 (1):41-54.
    It is often argued that it does not matter morally whether biomedical interventions treat or prevent diseases or enhance nondisease traits; what matters is whether and how much they promote well-being. Therapy and enhancement both promote well-being, the argument goes, so they are not morally distinct but instead continuous. I provide three reasons why this argument should be rejected when it is applied to choices concerning the genetic makeup of future people. First, it rests on too simple a conception of (...)
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  • The Parental Investment Factor and the Child's Right to an Open Future.Dena S. Davis - 2009 - Hastings Center Report 39 (2):24-27.
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  • “I am Your Mother and Your Father!” In Vitro Derived Gametes and the Ethics of Solo Reproduction.Daniela Cutas & Anna Smajdor - 2017 - Health Care Analysis 25 (4):354-369.
    In this paper, we will discuss the prospect of human reproduction achieved with gametes originating from only one person. According to statements by a minority of scientists working on the generation of gametes in vitro, it may become possible to create eggs from men’s non-reproductive cells and sperm from women’s. This would enable, at least in principle, the creation of an embryo from cells obtained from only one individual: ‘solo reproduction’. We will consider what might motivate people to reproduce in (...)
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  • Designing humans: A human rights approach.S. Matthew Liao - 2018 - Bioethics 33 (1):98-104.
    Advances in genomic technologies such as CRISPR‐Cas9, mitochondrial replacement techniques, and in vitro gametogenesis may soon give us more precise and efficient tools to have children with certain traits such as beauty, intelligence, and athleticism. In this paper, I propose a new approach to the ethics of reproductive genetic engineering, a human rights approach. This approach relies on two claims that have certain, independent plausibility: (a) human beings have equal moral status, and (b) human beings have human rights to the (...)
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  • Enhancement and human nature: the case of Sandel.T. Lewens - 2009 - Journal of Medical Ethics 35 (6):354-356.
    If we assume that “enhancement” names all efforts to boost human mental and physical capacities beyond the normal upper range found in our species, then enhancement covers such a broad range of interventions that it becomes implausible to think that there is any generic ethical case to be made either for or against it. Michael Sandel has recently made such a generic case, which focuses on the importance of respecting the “giftedness” of human nature. Sandel succeeds in diagnosing an important (...)
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  • Drawing the line on in vitro gametogenesis.Lauren Notini, Christopher Gyngell & Julian Savulescu - 2019 - Bioethics 34 (1):123-134.
    In vitro gametogenesis (IVG) might offer numerous research and clinical benefits. Some potential clinical applications of IVG, such as allowing opposite‐sex couples experiencing infertility to have genetically related children, have attracted support. Others, such as enabling same‐sex reproduction and solo reproduction, have attracted significantly more criticism. In this paper, we examine how different ethical principles might help us to draw lines and distinguish between ethically desirable and undesirable uses of IVG. We discuss the alleged distinction between therapeutic and non‐therapeutic uses (...)
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  • Autonomy, Natality and Freedom: A Liberal Re‐examination of Habermas in the Enhancement Debate.Jonathan Pugh - 2015 - Bioethics 29 (3):142-152.
    Jurgen Habermas has argued that carrying out pre-natal germline enhancements would be inimical to the future child's autonomy. In this article, I suggest that many of the objections that have been made against Habermas' arguments by liberals in the enhancement debate misconstrue his claims. To explain why, I begin by explaining how Habermas' view of personal autonomy confers particular importance to the agent's embodiment and social environment. In view of this, I explain that it is possible to draw two arguments (...)
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  • Germline Gene Editing and Genetic Enhancement: The Value of(Non-)Positional Goods.Robert Ranisch - 2019 - American Journal of Bioethics 19 (7):45-47.
    Volume 19, Issue 7, July 2019, Page 45-47.
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  • The Ethics of Genetic Cognitive Enhancement: Gene Editing or Embryo Selection?Marcelo de Araujo - 2020 - Philosophies 5 (3):20.
    Recent research with human embryos, in different parts of the world, has sparked a new debate on the ethics of genetic human enhancement. This debate, however, has mainly focused on gene-editing technologies, especially CRISPR (Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats). Less attention has been given to the prospect of pursuing genetic human enhancement by means of IVF (In Vitro Fertilisation) in conjunction with in vitro gametogenesis, genome-wide association studies, and embryo selection. This article examines the different ethical implications of the (...)
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  • Genetic engineering and autonomous agency.Linda Barclay - 2003 - Journal of Applied Philosophy 20 (3):223–236.
    abstract In this paper I argue that the genetic manipulation of sexual orientation at the embryo stage could have a detrimental effect on the subsequent person's later capacity for autonomous agency. By focussing on an example of sexist oppression I show that the norms and expectations expressed with this type of genetic manipulation can threaten the development of autonomous agency and the kind of social environment that makes its exercise likely.
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  • 1 Good Parents and New Reproductive Technologies.Christopher Gyngell - 2018 - In Emilian Mihailov, Tenzin Wangmo, Victoria Federiuc & Bernice S. Elger (eds.), Contemporary Debates in Bioethics: European Perspectives. [Berlin]: De Gruyter Open. pp. 1-10.
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  • New life sciences innovation and distributive justice: rawlsian goods versus senian capabilities.Theo Papaioannou - 2013 - Life Sciences, Society and Policy 9 (1):1-13.
    The successful decoding of human genome and subsequent advances in new life sciences innovation create technological presuppositions of a new possibility of justice i.e. the just distribution of both social and natural goods. Although Rawlsians attempt to expand their theory to include this new possibility, they fail to provide plausible metrics of social justice in the genomics and post-genomics era. By contrast, Senians seem to succeed to do so through their index of basic capabilities. This paper explores what might be (...)
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  • Individual Autonomy and Genetic Choice.Matthew Clayton - 2002 - In Justine Burley & John Harris (eds.), A Companion to Genethics. Wiley-Blackwell. pp. 191–205.
    The prelims comprise: Introduction Types of Gene Selection Issues Relating to Gene Selection and Personal Autonomy Individual Autonomy in a Liberal Society Parental Choice Procreative Autonomy versus Children's Autonomy Conclusion Acknowledgments Note.
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  • 4 Procreative Beneficence: is Selection Really Better Than Genetic Modification?Blanca Rodríguez López - 2018 - In Emilian Mihailov, Tenzin Wangmo, Victoria Federiuc & Bernice S. Elger (eds.), Contemporary Debates in Bioethics: European Perspectives. [Berlin]: De Gruyter Open. pp. 37-48.
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  • Analysing our qualms about “designing” future persons: Autonomy, freedom of choice, and interfering with nature. [REVIEW]Erik Malmqvist - 2007 - Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy 10 (4):407-416.
    Actually possible and conceivable future uses of preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) and germ-line genetic intervention in assisted reproduction seem to offer increasing possibilities of choosing the kind of persons that will be brought to existence. Many are troubled by the idea of these technologies being used for enhancement purposes. How can we make sense of this worry? Why are our thoughts about therapeutic genetic interventions and non-genetic enhancement (for instance education) not accompanied by the same intuitive uneasiness? I argue that (...)
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