Enhancement technologies and human identity.

David DeGrazia

doi:10.1080/03605310590960166

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Enhancement technologies and human identity.

David DeGrazia

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Abstract

As the President's Council on Bioethics emphasized in a recent report, rapid growth of biotechnologies creates increasingly many possibilities for enhancing human traits. This article addresses the claim that enhancement via biotechnology is inherently problematic for reasons pertaining to our identity. After clarifying the concept of enhancement, and providing a framework for understanding human identity, I examine the relationship between enhancement and identity. Then I investigate two identity-related challenges to biotechnological enhancements: (1) the charge of inauthenticity and (2) the charge of violating inviolable core characteristics. My thesis is that a lucid, plausible understanding of human identity largely neutralizes these charges, liberating our thinking from some seductive yet unsound objections to enhancement via biotechnology.

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Aging Bioethics Biomedical Enhancement Biotechnology Humans Inheritance Patterns Intelligence Personality Personhood Self Concept Social Identification Analytical Approach Biomedical and Behavioral Research Genetics and Reproduction Health Care and Public Health Philosophical Approach President's Council on Bioethics Journal Article

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David DeGrazia. 2005. Enhancement technologies and human identity.. https://doi.org/10.1080/03605310590960166

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