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Zou Y. Genetic enhancement from the perspective of transhumanism: exploring a new paradigm of transhuman evolution. MEDICINE, HEALTH CARE, AND PHILOSOPHY 2024:10.1007/s11019-024-10224-9. [PMID: 39196465 DOI: 10.1007/s11019-024-10224-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 08/05/2024] [Indexed: 08/29/2024]
Abstract
Transhumanism is a movement that advocates for the enhancement of human capabilities through the use of advanced technologies such as genetic enhancement. This article explores the definition, history, and development of transhumanism. Then, it compares the stance on genetic enhancement from the perspectives of bio-conservatism, bio-liberalism, and transhumanism. This article posits that transhuman evolution has twofold implications, allowing for the integration of transhumanist research and evolutionary biology. First, it offers a compelling scientific framework for understanding genetic enhancement, avoiding technological progressivism, and incorporating concepts of evolutionary biology. Second, it represents a new evolutionary paradigm distinct from traditional Lamarckism and Darwinism. It marks the third synthesis of evolutionary biology, offering fresh perspectives on established concepts such as artificial selection and gene-culture co-evolution. In recent decades, human enhancement has captivated not only evolutionary biologists, neurobiologists, psychologists, and philosophers, but also those in fields such as cybernetics and artificial intelligence. In addition to genetic enhancement, other human enhancement technologies, including brain-computer interfaces and brain uploading, are currently under development, which the paradigm of transhuman evolution can better integrate into its framework.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yawen Zou
- Institute of Humanities, ShanghaiTech University, 393 Huaxia Middle Road, Pudong District, Shanghai, 201210, P.R. China.
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Carrillo-Ruiz JD, Carrillo-Márquez JR, Beltrán JQ, Jiménez-Ponce F, García-Muñoz L, Navarro-Olvera JL, Márquez-Franco R, Velasco F. Innovative perspectives in limbic surgery using deep brain stimulation. Front Neurosci 2023; 17:1167244. [PMID: 37274213 PMCID: PMC10233042 DOI: 10.3389/fnins.2023.1167244] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/16/2023] [Accepted: 04/24/2023] [Indexed: 06/06/2023] Open
Abstract
Limbic surgery is one of the most attractive and retaken fields of functional neurosurgery in the last two decades. Psychiatric surgery emerged from the incipient work of Moniz and Lima lesioning the prefrontal cortex in agitated patients. Since the onset of stereotactic and functional neurosurgery with Spiegel and Wycis, the treatment of mental diseases gave attention to refractory illnesses mainly with the use of thalamotomies. Neurosis and some psychotic symptoms were treated by them. Several indications when lesioning the brain were included: obsessive-compulsive disorder, depression, and aggressiveness among others with a diversity of targets. The indiscriminately use of anatomical sites without enough scientific evidence, and uncertainly defined criteria for selecting patients merged with a deficiency in ethical aspects, brought a lack of procedures for a long time: only select clinics allowed this surgery around the world from 1950 to the 1990s. In 1999, Nuttin et al. began a new chapter in limbic surgery with the use of Deep Brain Stimulation, based on the experience of pain, Parkinson's disease, and epilepsy. The efforts were focused on different targets to treat depression and obsessive-compulsive disorders. Nevertheless, other diseases were added to use neuromodulation. The goal of this article is to show the new opportunities to treat neuropsychiatric diseases.
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Affiliation(s)
- José Damián Carrillo-Ruiz
- Stereotactic, Functional & Radiosurgery Unit of Neurosurgery Service, Mexico General Hospital, Mexico City, Mexico
- Research Direction, Mexico General Hospital, Mexico City, Mexico
- Neuroscience Coordination, Psychology Faculty, Anahuac University, Mexico City, Mexico
| | - José Rodrigo Carrillo-Márquez
- Faculty of Health Sciences, Anahuac University, Mexico City, Mexico
- Alpha Health Sciences Leadership Program, Anahuac University, Mexico City, Mexico
| | - Jesús Quetzalcóatl Beltrán
- Stereotactic, Functional & Radiosurgery Unit of Neurosurgery Service, Mexico General Hospital, Mexico City, Mexico
| | - Fiacro Jiménez-Ponce
- Stereotactic, Functional & Radiosurgery Unit of Neurosurgery Service, Mexico General Hospital, Mexico City, Mexico
| | - Luis García-Muñoz
- Stereotactic, Functional & Radiosurgery Unit of Neurosurgery Service, Mexico General Hospital, Mexico City, Mexico
| | - José Luis Navarro-Olvera
- Stereotactic, Functional & Radiosurgery Unit of Neurosurgery Service, Mexico General Hospital, Mexico City, Mexico
| | - René Márquez-Franco
- Stereotactic, Functional & Radiosurgery Unit of Neurosurgery Service, Mexico General Hospital, Mexico City, Mexico
| | - Francisco Velasco
- Stereotactic, Functional & Radiosurgery Unit of Neurosurgery Service, Mexico General Hospital, Mexico City, Mexico
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Koch T. Transhumanism, Moral Perfection, and Those 76 Trombones. THE JOURNAL OF MEDICINE AND PHILOSOPHY 2020; 45:179-192. [PMID: 31956892 DOI: 10.1093/jmp/jhz040] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Transhumanism advances an ideology promising a positive human advance through the application of new and as yet unrealized technologies. Underlying the whole is a libertarian ethos married to a very Christian eschatology promising a miraculous transformation that will answer human needs and redress human failings. In this paper, the supposedly scientific basis on which transhumanist promises are built is critiqued as futurist imaginings with little likelihood of actualization. Transhumanists themselves are likened to the affable con man Professor Harold Hill who, in The Music Man, describes as dire social problems whose solution is a youth band he seeks to sell but has no intention of building. Even were some of the transhumanist imaginings to be realized, I argue, the result would be a dystopia in which the few received benefits denied to the many. In advancing imaginary technologies as a solution to human needs, transhumanists and their bioethical fellow travelers handily avoid discussion of or advocacy for the kind of pedestrian social actions that demonstrably could achieve many of their purported goals. So their enthusiasms, I conclude, are not merely fanciful but damaging to the humanist goals they pretend to advance.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tom Koch
- University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada
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MacDougall DR. The Ends of Medicine and the Experience of Patients. THE JOURNAL OF MEDICINE AND PHILOSOPHY 2020. [DOI: 10.1093/jmp/jhz043] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/14/2022] Open
Abstract
AbstractThe ends of medicine are sometimes construed simply as promotion of health, treatment and prevention of disease, and alleviation of pain. Practitioners might agree that this simple formulation captures much of what medical practice is about. But while the ends of medicine may seem simple or even obvious, the essays in this issue demonstrate the wide variety of philosophical questions and issues associated with the ends of medicine. They raise questions about how to characterize terms like “health” and “disease”; whether medicine’s goals should be extended to include enhancement beyond normal human function; and whether the ends of medicine are binding on those involved in health care outside of professional medicine, such as pharmaceutical companies. They also give philosophical attention to patient experiences, and so raise questions about whether current practices achieve the ends of medicine from the perspective of the patient. Together these essays demonstrate the important role played by a conception of medicine’s ends in a wide variety of issues and problems in the philosophy and ethics of medicine.
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Abstract
This paper shows how critical realism can be used to integrate empirical data and philosophical analysis within 'empirical bioethics'. The term empirical bioethics, whilst appearing oxymoronic, simply refers to an interdisciplinary approach to the resolution of practical ethical issues within the biological and life sciences, integrating social scientific, empirical data with philosophical analysis. It seeks to achieve a balanced form of ethical deliberation that is both logically rigorous and sensitive to context, to generate normative conclusions that are practically applicable to the problem, challenge, or dilemma. Since it incorporates both philosophical and social scientific components, empirical bioethics is a field that is consistent with the use of critical realism as a research methodology. The integration of philosophical and social scientific approaches to ethics has been beset with difficulties, not least because of the irreducibly normative, rather than descriptive, nature of ethical analysis and the contested relation between fact and value. However, given that facts about states of affairs inform potential courses of action and their consequences, there is a need to overcome these difficulties and successfully integrate data with theory. Previous approaches have been formulated to overcome obstacles in combining philosophical and social scientific perspectives in bioethical analysis; however each has shortcomings. As a mature interdisciplinary approach critical realism is well suited to empirical bioethics, although it has hitherto not been widely used. Here I show how it can be applied to this kind of research and explain how it represents an improvement on previous approaches.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alex McKeown
- Centre for Ethics in Medicine, University of Bristol, Canynge Hall, 39 Whatley Road, Bristol, BS8 2PS, UK. .,Institute for Health and Human Development, University of East London, UH250, Stratford Campus, Water Lane, London, E15 4LZ, UK.
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Papaioannou TG, Karamanou M, Vavuranakis M, Tousoulis D. Health economics. Lancet 2017; 389:1879. [PMID: 28513443 DOI: 10.1016/s0140-6736(17)30048-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/04/2016] [Accepted: 09/12/2016] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Theodore G Papaioannou
- Biomedical Engineering Unit, First Department of Cardiology, Hippokration Hospital, Medical School, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens 11527, Greece.
| | - Marianna Karamanou
- Institute of History of Medicine and Public Health, CHUV, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Manolis Vavuranakis
- Biomedical Engineering Unit, First Department of Cardiology, Hippokration Hospital, Medical School, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens 11527, Greece
| | - Dimitrios Tousoulis
- Biomedical Engineering Unit, First Department of Cardiology, Hippokration Hospital, Medical School, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens 11527, Greece
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Lee J. Cochlear Implantation, Enhancements, Transhumanism and Posthumanism: Some Human Questions. SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING ETHICS 2016; 22:67-92. [PMID: 25962718 DOI: 10.1007/s11948-015-9640-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/18/2014] [Accepted: 03/09/2015] [Indexed: 05/28/2023]
Abstract
Biomedical engineering technologies such as brain-machine interfaces and neuroprosthetics are advancements which assist human beings in varied ways. There are exciting yet speculative visions of how the neurosciences and bioengineering may influence human nature. However, these could be preparing a possible pathway towards an enhanced and even posthuman future. This article seeks to investigate several ethical themes and wider questions of enhancement, transhumanism and posthumanism. Four themes of interest are: autonomy, identity, futures, and community. Three larger questions can be asked: will everyone be enhanced? Will we be "human" if we are not, one day, transhuman? Should we be enhanced or not? The article proceeds by concentrating on a widespread and sometimes controversial application: the cochlear implant, an auditory prosthesis implanted into Deaf patients. Cochlear implantation and its reception in both the deaf and hearing communities have a distinctive moral discourse, which can offer surprising insights. The paper begins with several points about the enhancement of human beings, transhumanism's reach beyond the human, and posthuman aspirations. Next it focuses on cochlear implants on two sides. Firstly, a shorter consideration of what technologies may do to humans in a transhumanist world. Secondly, a deeper analysis of cochlear implantation's unique socio-political movement, its ethical explanations and cultural experiences linked with pediatric cochlear implantation-and how those wary of being thrust towards posthumanism could marshal such ideas by analogy. As transhumanism approaches, the issues and questions merit continuing intense analysis.
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Affiliation(s)
- Joseph Lee
- Flinders University, GPO Box 2100, Adelaide, SA, 5001, Australia.
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Jotterand F. At the Roots of Transhumanism: From the Enlightenment to a Post-Human Future. THE JOURNAL OF MEDICINE AND PHILOSOPHY 2010. [DOI: 10.1093/jmp/jhq050] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
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