Unfreedom or Mere Inability? The Case of Biomedical Enhancement.
J Med Philos
; 49(2): 195-206, 2024 Mar 14.
Article
en En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-38418080
ABSTRACT
Mere inability, which refers to what persons are naturally unable to do, is traditionally thought to be distinct from unfreedom, which is a social type of constraint. The advent of biomedical enhancement, however, challenges the idea that there is a clear division between mere inability and unfreedom. This is because bioenhancement makes it possible for some people's mere inabilities to become matters of unfreedom. In this paper, I discuss several ways that this might occur first, bioenhancement can exacerbate social pressures to enhance one's abilities; second, people may face discrimination for not enhancing; third, the new abilities made possible due to bioenhancement may be accompanied by new inabilities for the enhanced and unenhanced; and finally, shifting values around abilities and inabilities due to bioenhancement may reinforce a pre-existing ableism about human abilities. As such, we must give careful consideration to these potential unfreedom-generating outcomes when it comes to our moral evaluations of bioenhancement.
Palabras clave
Texto completo:
1
Colección:
01-internacional
Base de datos:
MEDLINE
Asunto principal:
Valores Sociales
/
Refuerzo Biomédico
Límite:
Humans
Idioma:
En
Revista:
J Med Philos
Año:
2024
Tipo del documento:
Article
País de afiliación:
Dinamarca
Pais de publicación:
Estados Unidos