IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - March 2017 - 33
Human augmentation is a deliberate act. It is a permanent or temporary bodily intervention that changes
or augments otherwise normal ranges of human function. Augmentation varies wildly in scope and power,
from common forms of cosmetic surgery, to pharmacological interventions, gene therapy, neural implants, and
prosthetics. Many forms of human augmentation have
become so commonplace and socially accepted that
they do not pose difficult ethical questions in their use.
Other technological interventions, such as increasingly advanced forms of sensory augmentation and
genetic modification, pose weighty ethical questions.
march 2017
∕
Augmented humans may be scaled versions of our current selves and possess greater intelligence or strength,
or they may vary in kind, possessing abilities that
humans have never before encountered as a species.
Augmentation might create humans with unforeseeable
motivations, challenging received conceptions of
"human nature." The ethical issues raised by such
changes must be acknowledged and debated by those
who might use augmentation technology, those who
might be affected by its widespread use, and those that
create it. Most importantly, these questions must be
debated in a public forum, engendering civic discourse.
Human augmentation can entail the directed and
intentional use of biotechnological power to enhance or
improve an individual's native capacities and performances. The stakes for an individual are high. But the
social stakes are also high: In the future, those who
have access, power, and resources to augment will certainly stand to gain tremendously from their altered
physical and mental states.
Although it may not be possible to unambiguously
distinguish interventions that are "therapeutic" from
those that are "enhancing," this distinction should not
be abandoned. In fact, this contextual categorization
sits at the forefront of public, private, governmental,
institutional, and monetary engagement with the future
of augmentation technologies and tools. The public
health, funding, and social implications of this distinction are far-reaching.
The Ethical Framework for Human Augmentation that
is presented here is a tool for navigating ethical questions
that emerge around human augmentation. It is designed
to be inclusive of the wide community of stakeholders
within fields that touch upon human augmentation technology - medical professionals, the DIY community, corporate interests, legislators, and those in the military.
This tool may provide a framework for doctors to act
upon medical interventions requested by an individual
for the purposes of enhancing a bodily function or creating a new set of abilities. It can guide inventors in deciding to abandon or pursue certain research areas that
may have far-reaching implications. It can guide manufacturers towards transparency or increased access to
users of licensed hardware and software. It can help
guide patients in deciding what they can reasonably
request of medical professionals and manufacturers. It
could guide legislators in the process of writing laws
around the use of certain forms of technology. It might
guide regulators in deciding whether to approve or
reject a proposed technology for public or private use.
Importantly, this ethical framework is designed to
help foster democratic forms of deliberation for different
groups of people that have a stake in the future of the
lived human experience.
IEEE TEchnology and SocIETy MagazInE
33
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