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Reflections on public bioethics: a view from the trenches.

For many reasons, and more than its predecessors, the President's Council on Bioethics has been the subject of much public attention and heated controversy. But little of that attention and controversy has been informed by knowledge of the Council's mission, its ways of working, and, most importantly, its actual work. This essay describes the Council's mission, discusses its public ways of working, and reviews the five major works produced during the Council's first term. In all its activities, the Council has sought to develop a richer bioethics, one that recognizes and tries to do justice to the deep issues of our humanity raised by the age of biotechnology. Believing that these issues are properly matters to be discussed and governed by the polity as a whole, the Council also has sought to contribute to a genuinely public or political bioethics, beyond the rule of "experts," scientific and bioethical.

Advisory Committees↗

On human improvement.

The claim that human cognitive abilities can be markedly improved by near-future biophysical means is examined as to its clarity, desirability, and feasibility. Generally, this is a study of the "space of reasons" of such a claim. Comparison is offered to claims of the feasibility of significant moral improvement of individuals. While this study is more exploratory than conclusive, the result is drawn that the possibility of such improvement merits serious consideration, given such improvement's far-reaching implications.

Biomedical Enhancement↗

Facing immortality.

This study is primarily a call to philosophers to attend the concerns raised by the increasing possibility of indefinitely extended human life. While these concerns are largely moral and socio-political, questions arising from this possibility are seen to involve other philosophical areas, including epistemology. Starting with the age-old desire for extended, enjoyable life, possible strategies for realizing such life are considered. Such realization is shown to conflict with the desire for children. Various reasons for choice between the alternatives of indefinitely extended life and what is currently understood to be a normal life, including the possibility of offspring, are examined. Competing social visions are sketched for the purpose of resolving this dilemma. It is argued that humanity's likely choice from among the competing social sketches favors the decision for extended life against that for limited lifespan with the possibility of children. Assuming that the extended life will be a life of learning leads to epistemological considerations regarding what is to be learned.

Biomedical Enhancement↗

Pill power.

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Biomedical Enhancement↗