Abstract
Recent research with human embryos, in different parts of the world, has sparked a new debate on the ethics of genetic human enhancement. This debate, however, has mainly focused on gene-editing technologies, especially CRISPR (Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats). Less attention has been given to the prospect of pursuing genetic human enhancement by means of IVF (In Vitro Fertilisation) in conjunction with in vitro gametogenesis, genome-wide association studies, and embryo selection. This article examines the different ethical implications of the quest for cognitive enhancement by means of gene-editing on the one hand, and embryo selection on the other. The article focuses on the ethics of cognitive enhancement by means of embryo selection, as this technology is more likely to become commercially available before cognitive enhancement by means of gene-editing. This article argues that the philosophical debate on the ethics of enhancement should take into consideration public attitudes to research on human genomics and human enhancement technologies. The article discusses, then, some of the recent findings of the SIENNA Project, which in 2019 conducted a survey on public attitudes to human genomics and human enhancement technologies in 11 countries (France, Germany, Greece, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain, Sweden, Brazil, South Africa, South Korea, and United States).
Highlights
The conceptualization of the human body as a complex machine is not new among philosophers and scientists
One of the surveys recently conducted by the SIENNA Project revealed, for example, that, on average, 79% of people across 11 countries believe that prospective parents will feel “pressured to have genetic
Even prior to the emergence of CRISPR, around 2012, philosophers and bioethicists had been discussing the ethical implications of the quest for GCE
Summary
The conceptualization of the human body as a complex machine is not new among philosophers and scientists. I intend to focus on the more recent development: I will focus on genetic engineering, rather than on prosthetic limbs, as a means to enhance the human body. This, as I intend to show later, raises ethical questions that do not emerge when we deploy other methods of human enhancement such as, for instance, drugs or prosthetic limbs. Time-lapse analysis has been performed in combination with the use of artificial intelligence in order to further improve the assessment of embryo viability [28] This procedure enhances the clinicians’ ability to select an embryo that has more chances of adhering to the womb and developing into a healthy child. Further development of new technologies such as IVG and CRISPR has the potential to give rise to other non-therapeutic applications of ART, including human enhancement. The question, is whether further development of IVG and CRISPR might give rise to circumstances in which their use as ART, whether for therapeutic or non-therapeutic goals, might be considered ethically acceptable
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