Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
(2007, 516) defines enhancement as technology to help people “live a longer
and/or better life” than normal, and ethicist Thomas murray (2007) of the
hastings Center uses the dictionary definition of
enhance:
to advance, aug-
ment, elevate, heighten, or increase.
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religious studies and Christian ethics
scholar Gerald mcKenny (2002) acknowledges that human “enhancement”
is an imprecise term that can refer to a range of phenomena, including in-
creased capabilities and cosmetic alterations. for murray, the question is
not whether enhancement per se is good or bad, but how others are affected
by the enhancement and what values and objectives the enhancement pro-
motes. for example, would a decision by parents to genetically enhance
their male embryo to grow into a seven-foot-tall, well-coordinated, ath-
letic man be mainly self-serving or for the well-being of their son?
shortness due to pituitary gland malfunction is considered abnormal,
the pituitary gland in such a person being considered diseased. Another
person may simply have shortness in her genes and nothing wrong with
her pituitary gland. if neither takes supplemental human growth hormone
(hGh) and both grow to be only 4 feet 10 inches tall, is the former person
diseased and the latter person healthy but just short? The Us food and
Drug Administration indirectly answered this question in 2003 when it
approved the use of humatrope injections for children with idiopathic
short stature; that is, with shortness not caused by pituitary gland mal-
function or other abnormal conditions, including Turner and Prader-Willi
syndromes.
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With this decision, the fDA effectively defined as abnormal
the shortest 1.2 percent of children in the United states, regardless of the
causes for their shortness (Drug information online 2003). such “diag-
nostic creep,” where a condition previously considered normal gradually
comes to be considered abnormal simply because the technology exists to
change it, is also a concern for neuroenhancement via drugs like Prozac
and ritalin (chapter 9). Although the hGh example does not involve hu-
man genetic engineering, it highlights the problem of distinguishing be-
tween therapy and enhancement.
The “playing God” objection applies to only some notions of God, pre-
sumes that one knows the proper role of God, and presumes that human
activity should not overlap with God's activities. most of modern medi-
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