Enhancing Human Capacities

by Savulescu, Julian; ter Meulen, Ruud; Kahane, Guy

• ISBN13: 9781405195812
• ISBN10: 1405195819
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2011-04-18
• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell

Summary

Enhancing Human Capacities is the first to review the very latest scientific developments in human enhancement. It is unique in its examination of the ethical and policy implications of these technologies from a broad range of perspectives. Presents a rich range of perspectives on enhancement from world leading ethicists and scientists from Europe and North America The most comprehensive volume yet on the science and ethics of human enhancement Unique in providing a detailed overview of current and expected scientific advances in this area Discusses both general conceptual and ethical issues and concrete questions of policy Includes sections covering all major forms of enhancement: cognitive, affective, physical, and life extension

Author Biography

Julian Savulescu is Uehiro Chair in Practical Ethics at the University of Oxford, and Director of the Oxford Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics within the Faculty of Philosophy. He is also Director of the Wellcome Centre for Neuroethics, and Director of the Program on the Ethics of the New Biosciences, within the James Martin 21st Century School at the University of Oxford. He is author of over 200 publications and has given over 100 international presentations.

Ruud ter Meulen is Chair in Ethics in Medicine, and Director of the Centre for Ethics in Medicine at the University of Bristol. Previously he worked as Professor of Philosophy and Director of the Institute for Bioethics at the University of Maastricht (The Netherlands). He is author of over 130 publications and has given over 100 national and international presentations. He was co-ordinator of the ENHANCE project in which most of the chapters of this book were produced.

Guy Kahane is Deputy Director of the Oxford Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics, and Research Fellow at the Wellcome Centre for Neuroethics, both at the Faculty of Philosophy, University of Oxford. Kahane is also Fulford Junior Research Fellow at Somerville College Oxford, and a recipient of a Wellcome Trust University Award in Biomedical Ethics. Kahane has published extensively in applied ethics, metaethics and value theory.

Table of Contents

Preface

Key Concepts and Questions

Introduction: Wellbeing and the Concept of Enhancement

The Concept of Nature and the Enhancement Technologies Debate

Enhancement, Autonomy and Authenticity

Breaking Evolution's Chains: The Promise of Enhancement by Design

Cognitive Enhancement

Introduction: Cognition Enhancement--Upgrading the Brain

The Social and Economic Impacts of Cognitive Enhancement

Cognitive Enhancing Drugs: Neuroscience and Society

Cognitive Bias and Collective Enhancement

Smart Policy: Cognitive Enhancement in the Public Interest

Mood Enhancement

Introduction: Feeling Better - Scientific, Ethical and Social Issues in Mood Enhancement

Reasons to Feel, Reasons to take Pills

What's In a Name- ADHD and the Grey Area Between Treatment and Enhancement

What Is Good or Bad In Mood Enhancement?

Asperger's Syndrome, Bipolar Disorder and the Relation between Mood, Cognition and Well-Being

Is Mood Enhancement a Legitimate Goal of Medicine?

Cognitive Therapy and Positive Psychology Combined: A Promising Approach to the Enhancement of Happiness

After Prozac

Physical Enhancement

Introduction: Physical Enhancement

Physical Enhancement - The State of the Art

Enhanced Bodies

Physical Enhancement: What Baseline, Whose Judgement?

Le Tour and Failure of Zero Tolerance: Time to Relax Doping Controls

Enhancing Skill

Can a Ban on Doping in Sport be Morally Justified?

Life Extension

Introduction: Looking for the Fountain of Youth: Scientific, Ethical and Social Issues in the Extension of Human Lifespan

Is Living Longer Living Better?

Life Extension versus Replacement

Life Span Extension: Metaphysical Basis and Ethical Outcomes

Lifespan Extension and Personal Identity

Intergenerational Justice and Lifespan Extension

The Value of Life Extension to Persons as Conatively-Driven Processes

Enhancing Human Ageing: The Cultural and Psychosocial Context of Life-Span Extension

Policy Making for a New Generation of Interventions in Age-Related Disease and Decline

Moral Enhancement

Moral Enhancement

Unfit for the Future?: Human Nature, Scientific Progress and the Need for Moral Enhancement

General Policy

Of Nails and Hammers: Human Biological Enhancement and American Policy Tools

The Politics of Human Enhancement and the European Union

Notes on Contributors

Index

Table of Contents provided by Publisher. All Rights Reserved.