Untangling the debate: The ethics of human enhancement

The Open Public Health Journal, Bentham Science, 2020

Background: While modern humans seek ways to extend life expectancy, the necessity of advanced bioengineering tools for the production of effective human enhancement applications appears as compelling as ever. Objective: The technological future of Homo sapiens has been scheduled within a quantum environment and advanced physical interventions are imperative to occur in the anatomy of modern humans, including genetic improvement and human cloning. New terminologies and latest projects such as genome editing, mind uploading and tissue engineering applications for the growth of new organs are issues of discussion in this paper. Methods: Several advanced biotechnological methods are presented in this paper, including the 14-days rule, the 2045 Initiative project and the CRISPR technique and their social and ethical implications are discussed. Results: The exponential aging of the population results in rapidly increasing demands for next-generation drugs and innovative pharmaceutical products that target individualized genetic treatment, resulting in the emergence of controversial ethical and social implications in the forthcoming post-Homo sapiens Era. Conclusion: The next-generation ethics must be clarified, an interdisciplinary debate should be initiated, and all the different perspectives must be recorded and evaluated to adopt the most efficient practices for controversial topics like the potential digital immortality.

Futures, 2023

Human enhancement is one of the leading research topics in contemporary applied ethics. Interestingly, the widespread attention to the ethical aspects of future enhancement applications has generated misgivings. Are researchers who spend their time investigating the ethics of futuristic human enhancement scenarios acting in an ethically suboptimal manner? Are the methods they use to analyze future technological developments appropriate? Are institutions wasting resources by funding such research? In this article, I address the ethics of doing human enhancement ethics focusing on two main concerns. The Methodological Problem refers to the question of how we should methodologically address the moral aspects of future enhancement applications. The Normative Problem refers to what is the normative justification for investigating and funding the research on the ethical aspects of future human enhancement. This article aims to give a satisfactory response to both meta-questions in order to ethically justify the inquiry into the ethical aspects of emerging enhancement technologies.

The national Catholic bioethics quarterly

At the current rate of progress, molecular nanotechnology will soon make it possible to precisely arrange individual atoms in bulk quantities, making many extraordinary medical enhancements possible. In order to judge whether a given enhancement is right or wrong, we need a well-thought-out value system and a methodology for applying it. If we can determine the morality of nanomedical enhancements, then we will have gone far towards learning how to safely and morally handle other, more dangerous applications of nanotechnology, such as those involved in national security. On the other hand, if we do not understand these new technologies and their moral implications, and if our values are self-contradictory and selfishly shortsighted, then these powerful technologies will rightfully frighten and confuse us, and might even cause our extinction-within the next decade or two. Attempting to relinquish or banish the technology will only push it underground where it will become even more dangerous. One way to start avoiding all these dangers is to ask the right questions.

2018

Since a significant time ago, although time runs very fast, nanotechnology transformed from one of the most promising scientific hopes in uncountable human domains into a marvelous certainty. Innumerable scientific studies in several areas of knowledge were made since nanoscale emergence, carrying their contribution to the nanoscience development, leading to a great development of technical and scientific knowledge but also raising numerous problems in the ethical field. In this chapter, nanotechnology is discussed both in terms of ethics and in terms of borders that nanotechnology applications must satisfy and concluding notes are presented, highlighting the results of the analysis. Significant considerations are made on the close connection between ethics and the nanotechnology and the effects over the society and values.

2009

Bionanotechnology, nanobiotechnology and nanobiology are terms that refer to the intersection of nanotechnology and biology. The subject is one that has only emerged very recently, nanobiotechnology serve as blanket terms for various related technologies. Nanoethics "concerns ethical and social issues associated with developments in nanotechnology". Nano biotechnology represents a rapidly growing field of interest and has a wide variety of applications. However, as with nanotechnology and biotechnology, bionanotechnology does have many potential ethical issues associated with it. Nano2Life ELSA (2006) board has identified some potential issues more specific to nanobiotechnology. Because of the wide gap between the basic science and many of the still speculative predictions, nanobiotechnologies are presented in a future oriented way, which itself poses the first ethical challenge. The ethical issues concerned with nanobiotechnologies are related to Health, Safety, Medical, Legal, Social and Environmental issues. Other ethical issues include Governance of Research, Economic Displacements, Anthropological Aspects and Transhumanists. Most issues on nanobiotechnology are still at its infancy and inconclusive. Thus, nanobiotechnologies act as enabling technologies that widen and sharpen the impact of existing issues. The current paper deals with an analysis of research students’ perspectives concerning ethical issues associated with nanotechnology research. The study reveals that issues related to Medical field (40%) is the first ethical challenge in nanobiotechnology followed by Environmental issues (30%), Health and Safety issues (20%) and Societal issues (10%). Most of the respondents believe that nanobiotechnology will pose more risks (50 - 90%) to human health rather than benefits (25%). Therefore, it is important to encourage ethics researchers to produce quality research proposals on ethical issues and to have the public involved in the discussion of the social impact of nanotechnology.

Journal of Bioethical Inquiry, 2009

Nanotechnologies are expected to have a substantial impact on our lives in the future. However, the nanotechnology field is characterised by many uncertainties and debates surrounding the characterisation of technologies, the nature of the applications, the potential benefits and the likely risks. Given the rapid development of nanotechnologies, it is timely to consider what, if any, novel ethical challenges are posed by developments and how best to address these given the attendant uncertainties. The three articles which comprise this symposium consider the philosophical, regulatory and risk perception and communication questions that arise from this arena.

NanoEthics, 2009

The current literature on nanoethics focuses on a wide array of topics such as equity, privacy, military, environment, human enhancement, intellectual property, and security. The identification of those topics leads to the adoption of an ethical stance, which we call the in itself dimension. In this article we argue that even though it is correct to identify the areas where ethical problems are imperative to deal with (in itself dimension), it is a partial approach. This is because the in itself dimension pays no attention to another ethical stance; one that does not have anything to do with individual or collective responsibilities, but rather with the socio-economic system into which those responsibilities are embedded. We call this second issue the contextual dimension.

Iranian journal of public health

Nanotechnology is considered as an industrial revolution of the third millennium. Advances have a remarkable impact on different fields such as medicine, engineering, economy and even politics. However, a wide range of ethical issues has been raised by this innovative science. Many authorities believe that these advancements could lead to irreversible disasters if not limited by ethical guidelines. Involvement of developing countries in new fields of science could be associated with substantial advantages. In this paper, we intend to review main ethical issues of nanotechnology, taking into account the surge of interests in this field and the ever-increasing advances of nanotechnology in Iran. The issue of safety, considering environmental and ecological impacts of nanoparticles (smart dust), and standards of customer awareness are important debates. The 'Grey-goo' scenario and the concerns about 'post-humanism' are also discussed by bioethicists. There are further concerns about justice, intellectual property rights, accountability, and the probability of military and security misuse.

2008

This brief paper introduces the subject of Nanotechnology and its ethical implications as an applied technology. It goes on to explore and present a blueprint for the theological, legal and ethical issues which Muslim scholars may need to address, as well as a framework through which scholars can determine relevant solutions.