KEY ISSUES: HUMAN AUGMENTATION/"ENHANCEMENT"
Advances in biotechnology, neuroscience, computing, and nanotechnology are coming together in ways that may make it possible to alter the genetic make-up of our children, to insert artificial implants into our bodies (including our brains), and to radically extend life expectancy.
Such technology-enabled alterations of the human condition go beyond interventions aimed at treating illness or addressing impairment. Rather, these "enhancement" are attempts - whether temporary or permanent - to surpass normal human capacities and characteristics in a far more dramatic fashion than plastic surgery and performance-enhancing drugs. And the development of the ability to fundamentally alter ourselves, and our children, raises concerns about the potential for misuse, the possibility of discrimination against those who chose to forego or cannot afford such "enhancements," and issues of intergenerational justice.
For more on this topic, see:
The President's Council on Bioethics
Institute on Biotechnology and the Human Future
Center on Nanotechnology and Society
"Americans have always defined themselves in terms of the future. It is therefore astonishing that there is no policy institute on emerging technologies in the nation's capital, one that cuts across philosophical lines. C-PET addresses that absence in our national conversation."
—JONATHAN MORENO
