Transhumanism and Prenatal Genetic Modification: a Case of Totalitarian Eugenics?
Abstract Nick Bostrom, pioneer of transhumanism as a philosophical movement, stipulates two assumptions within its human improvement project: (1) that it is a liberal project (i.e., that it does not coerce human beings) and (2) that it is a neutral project (i.e., free of political, economic, and ideological interests). In this paper I will show that (1) and (2) are false. In that sense, I will argue that transhumanism is, in its ideals, a project of eugenics or "liberal" human improvement. However, in its realization and in some of its arguments, it becomes a "totalitarian" eugenics or enhancement project. This is so because the transhumanist project contains an element of totalitarian eugenics: coercion. In order to make this clear, I put forward three arguments and expose a case of human enhancement endorsed by transhumanists from the synthetic biology approach: prenatal ethical gene modification. This case is important because it shows how an external agent makes decisions (coerces) on another. For this reason, I propose the creation of a bioethics committee whose main objective is to analyze the arguments and motivations of parents to modify their child(ren) in the embryonic stage, giving space to an exercise of deliberative democracy among different actors of society.
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Savulescu J. (2001). Procreative Beneficence: why we should select the best children. Bioethics. Vol 15: 413–26.
Saxton, M. (2000). Why Members of the Disability Community Oppose Prenatal Diagnosis and Selective Abortion en Prenatal Testing and Disability Rights. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press; 2000: 147–164.
World Transhumanism Association. (1998). The transhumanist declaration. Obtained from: https://www.humanityplus.org/the-transhumanist-declaration. Consultado el 30/08/2022.
Bostrom, N. (2003). Transhumanist values, Ethical Issues for the 21st Century, ed. Frederick Adams (Philosophical Documentation Center Press, 2003); reprinted in Review of Contemporary Philosophy, Vol. 4, May (2005)]. Obtained from: https://nickbostrom.com/ethics/values.
Bostrom, N. (2005). A History of Transhumanist Thought, Journal of Evolution and Technology, Vol.14, No. 1.
Browne, J. (2007). Darwin Origin’s of Species. Trad. Ricardo García. Barcelona: Random House Mondadori.
D' Angelo, R. et al. (2020). The Crispr/cas9 techniques applied to human genetic enhancement: a biotechnological, anthropological, philosophical and legal dialogue. Cuadernos de Bioética; 31(103), 343–355.
De Melo-Martin, I. (2004). On our obligation to select the best children: a reply to Julian Savulescu. Bioethics, 18(1), 72–83. Londres: Blackwell Publishing.
Ekberg, M. (2007). The old eugenics and the new genetics compared. Soc. Hist. Med., 20(3), 581–593.
Galton, F. (1909). Essays in eugenics. London: The eugenics education society.
Goering, S. (2000). Gene Therapies and the Pursuit of a Better Human. Breaking bioethics special edition, en Pursuit of Perfect People: The Ethics of Enhancement. Londres: Cambridge University Press.
Gracia, D. (2001). La deliberación moral: el método de la ética clínica. Universidad Complutense de Madrid. Artículo para el Proyecto de Bioética para Clínicos del Instituto de Bioética de la Fundación de Ciencias de la Salud. Universidad Complutense de Madrid. Instituto de
Bioética. Fundación de Ciencias de la Salud. Madrid.
Green, R. (2007). Babies by desing: the ethics of genetic choice. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Habermas, J. (2002). El futuro de la naturaleza humana: ¿hacia una eugenesia liberal?. Barcelona: editorial Paidós.
Haldane, J. B. S. (1924). Daedalus; or, science and the future. London: K. Paul, Trench, Trubner & co., ltd.
Huxley, J. (1927). Religion without revelation. London: E. Benn.
Sandel, M. (2007). The case against the perfection: ethics in the age of genetic engineering. The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.
Savulescu J. (2001). Procreative Beneficence: why we should select the best children. Bioethics. Vol 15: 413–26.
Saxton, M. (2000). Why Members of the Disability Community Oppose Prenatal Diagnosis and Selective Abortion en Prenatal Testing and Disability Rights. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press; 2000: 147–164.
World Transhumanism Association. (1998). The transhumanist declaration. Obtained from: https://www.humanityplus.org/the-transhumanist-declaration. Consultado el 30/08/2022.
Cobo, S. (2023). Transhumanism and Prenatal Genetic Modification: a Case of Totalitarian Eugenics?. ArtefaCToS. Revista De Estudios Sobre La Ciencia Y La tecnología, 12(2), 85–110. https://doi.org/10.14201/art2023.29338
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