Tying oneself to the mast: One necessary cost to morally enhancing oneself biomedically

Rumbold, Benedict

Abstract

In this article I seek to establish what, if anything, might be morally troubling about morally enhancing oneself through biomedical means. Building on arguments by Harris, while simultaneously acknowledging several valid counter-arguments that have been put forth by his critics, I argue that taking BMEs necessarily incurs at least one moral cost in the restrictions they impose on our freedom. This does not necessarily entail that the use of BMEs cannot be overall justified, nor that, in certain cases, their costs may not be forestalled. It does show, however, that their use is not morally neutral. There is a cost to such technologies and, as such, the onus will always be on their defenders to show that these costs can compensated for.

Citation

Rumbold, B. (2017). Tying oneself to the mast: One necessary cost to morally enhancing oneself biomedically. Bioethics, 31(7), 543-551. https://doi.org/10.1111/bioe.12362

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Online Publication Date: Jun 14, 2017
• Publication Date: Sep 1, 2017
• Deposit Date: Sep 30, 2024
• Journal: Bioethics
• Print ISSN: 0269-9702
• Electronic ISSN: 1467-8519
• Publisher: Wiley
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 31
• Issue: 7
• Pages: 543-551
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/bioe.12362
• Keywords: agency, bioethics, biomedical moral enhancements, freedom, moral enhancement
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1425923
• Publisher URL: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/bioe.12362