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Autonomy and Enhancement
Some have objected to human enhancement on the grounds that it violates the autonomy of the enhanced. These objections, however, overlook the interesting possibility that autonomy itself could be enhanced. How, exactly, to enhance autonomy is a difficult problem due to the numerous and diverse accou...
Autores principales: | , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Springer Netherlands
2013
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4070419/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25045410 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s12152-013-9189-5 |
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author | Schaefer, G. Owen Kahane, Guy Savulescu, Julian |
author_facet | Schaefer, G. Owen Kahane, Guy Savulescu, Julian |
author_sort | Schaefer, G. Owen |
collection | PubMed |
description | Some have objected to human enhancement on the grounds that it violates the autonomy of the enhanced. These objections, however, overlook the interesting possibility that autonomy itself could be enhanced. How, exactly, to enhance autonomy is a difficult problem due to the numerous and diverse accounts of autonomy in the literature. Existing accounts of autonomy enhancement rely on narrow and controversial conceptions of autonomy. However, we identify one feature of autonomy common to many mainstream accounts: reasoning ability. Autonomy can then be enhanced by improving people’s reasoning ability, in particular through cognitive enhancement; given how valuable autonomy is usually taken to be, this gives us extra reason to pursue such cognitive enhancements. Moreover, autonomy-based objections will be especially weak against such enhancements. As we will argue, those who are worried that enhancements will inhibit people’s autonomy should actually embrace those enhancements that will improve autonomy. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-4070419 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2013 |
publisher | Springer Netherlands |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-40704192014-07-16 Autonomy and Enhancement Schaefer, G. Owen Kahane, Guy Savulescu, Julian Neuroethics Original Paper Some have objected to human enhancement on the grounds that it violates the autonomy of the enhanced. These objections, however, overlook the interesting possibility that autonomy itself could be enhanced. How, exactly, to enhance autonomy is a difficult problem due to the numerous and diverse accounts of autonomy in the literature. Existing accounts of autonomy enhancement rely on narrow and controversial conceptions of autonomy. However, we identify one feature of autonomy common to many mainstream accounts: reasoning ability. Autonomy can then be enhanced by improving people’s reasoning ability, in particular through cognitive enhancement; given how valuable autonomy is usually taken to be, this gives us extra reason to pursue such cognitive enhancements. Moreover, autonomy-based objections will be especially weak against such enhancements. As we will argue, those who are worried that enhancements will inhibit people’s autonomy should actually embrace those enhancements that will improve autonomy. Springer Netherlands 2013-08-17 2014 /pmc/articles/PMC4070419/ /pubmed/25045410 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s12152-013-9189-5 Text en © The Author(s) 2013 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/ Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits any use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author(s) and the source are credited. |
spellingShingle | Original Paper Schaefer, G. Owen Kahane, Guy Savulescu, Julian Autonomy and Enhancement |
title | Autonomy and Enhancement |
title_full | Autonomy and Enhancement |
title_fullStr | Autonomy and Enhancement |
title_full_unstemmed | Autonomy and Enhancement |
title_short | Autonomy and Enhancement |
title_sort | autonomy and enhancement |
topic | Original Paper |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4070419/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25045410 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s12152-013-9189-5 |
work_keys_str_mv | AT schaefergowen autonomyandenhancement AT kahaneguy autonomyandenhancement AT savulescujulian autonomyandenhancement |