Introduction: Bioethics and Human Enhancement

Abstract

The works collected in this Monograph on human enhancement are the outgrowth of the II International Workshop on "Practical Ethics. Bioethics and Human Enhancement". All of them shift from the classical opposition between two ethical sides, bioconservatism and posthumanism, to new philosophical insights. They also take into account the problem of public perception and assessment on biotechnologies. All of the articles illuminate ways to deal with issues surrounding cognitive enhancement such as an analysis of the increase in individual and collective benefits that cognitive enhancements would give rise to; a new account of how a society would achieve the equality of opportunities for intellectually disabled and non-disabled persons by the means of genetic enhancement; an inquiry on the interplay of cognitive enhancement and human authenticity; a new moral justification for enhancements, which is thought as a third way to classical framing; and, finally a call for more reflexive bioethical inquiries.