Paschal M Corby - The Hope and Despair of Human Bioenhancement

Why Transhumanism?

W hat I refer to throughout this work as the transhumanist project , cause , or movement encompasses a range of proposals, from simple measures to the improbable and bizarre, that aim at enhancing the human condition, using medical technology to move human beings beyond their natural limitations. Nick Bostrom is representative of the transhumanist cause in contending that current human nature is improvable through the use of applied science and other rational methods, which may make it possible to increase human health-span, extend our intellectual and physical capacities, and give us increased control over our own mental states and moods. Such enhancement is often termed transhuman or posthuman , implying not only an augmentation of human abilities, but also a qualitative change that takes one beyond the human species.

In light of its futuristic aspirations, with limited actual application, transhumanism might not seem to warrant serious reflection. Before the presence of real bioethical dilemmas such as new threats to life, the unjust distribution of healthcare resources, and the perennial issues surrounding life at its beginning and end, devoting time to an improbable possibility might appear to be a distraction or a luxury that we can ill afford. Yet the prospect of transhumanism has caught the imagination of not a few contemporary bioethicists and philosophers, inspiring centers of research, and sparking a lively debate between its supporters and critics.

While first impressions suggest something remote and abstract, it soon becomes clear that the transhumanist proposal treats of real concerns that touch on the very meaning of human life. In asking why one should take seriously the proposals of transhumanists, the prominent American bioethicist Leon Kass writes:

It raises the weightiest questions of bioethics, touching on the ends and goals of the biomedical enterprise, the nature and meaning of human flourishing, and the intrinsic threat of dehumanization (or the promise of superhumanization). It compels attention to what it means to be a human being and to be active as a human being.

In their pursuit to enhance and even transcend the current human condition, transhumanists caste shadows over the goodness of life and raise hopes for a bright and better future. Thus, even if many of its imaginative prospects do not eventuate, it demands a response here-and-now, for our hopes and aspirations define who we are. Accordingly, the primary concern of this work is not for the practicality of transhumanist claims, but a discernment of its worth as a proper object of human hope. In this context, hope becomes the leitmotif of this paper, in the context of a virtual dialogue between the Oxford Transhumanists and Joseph Ratzinger.

The Oxford Transhumanists

In presenting the transhumanist project, I will focus on what one might term the Oxford School of transhumanism, centered on the figures of Julian Savulescu and Nick Bostrom, and the Oxford Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics (Uehiro Centre) and the Future of Humanity Institute (FHI) respectively.

Julian Savulescu (b. 1963 ) is an Australian philosopher and bioethicist, currently based at Oxford University as professor of practical ethics and director of the Uehiro Centre. He is the current editor in chief of the Journal of Medical Ethics . He is a graduate of medicine (Monash University), and completed a PhD under the supervision of renowned bioethicist Peter Singer. To date, Savulescus main contribution to the field of human enhancement has been in the area of genetic selection of children, advocating selection of children with the best prospects of the best life, for which he coined the term Procreative Beneficence. He also advocates biotechnology to enhance cognitive, physical (including doping in sport), and moral capacities. In this latter regard, he has coauthored with Ingmar Persson Unfit for the Future: The Need for Moral Enhancement (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012 ). More generally, he has coedited works with Ruud ter Meulen and Guy Kahane ( Enhancing Human Capacities , Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, 2011 ), and with Nick Bostrom ( Human Enhancement , Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009 ).