Our purpose in this article is to make a prospectivist evaluation of the enhancing medicine regarding the human nature. From this, we are interested by the future of humanity within the project of artificializing human life. In order to achieve our epistemological aim, we have distributed this work into three main parts. The first part is an analysis of medical ethical principles that are presented as the safety belt of human nature. The human being within Hippocratic tradition of medicine has always been treated with certain consideration since he is an absolute value. In all circumstances, physicians were bound to preserve live and protect human dignity. Then, the medical paradigm prevailing was the therapeutic one. In the second part, the concern is to scrutinize the biotechnological revolution mainly the process of genetic engineering. This revolution brought alongside medical practices another version of treating human being. It is the version of higher experimentation and scientific curiosity. Therefore, the practitioners of genetic engineering proceed by a profound intervention in human genome in order, not mainly to cure disease, but to discover what makes life and others human functions be possible. When these are discovered, they can program, design and enhance the future human being. This practice cannot go on without raising ethical questions such as the risk of alteration of human nature. It can also bring in the society the social injustice, giving the fact that those practices are more expensive to be at the level of all the social classes. The most eminent consequence of this social injustice is what we name bioimperialism where the natural human beings will become the slaves of artificial and enhanced human beings. Finally, we will bring a new perspective to contain the risks of enhancing medicine. It is necessary that man must recognize the limits of his power and the effects that the overuse of that power can generate as disasters. However, it is also relevant to notice that, enhancing medicine has already gained public opinion. Accordingly, theorical discourses of bioethicists and philosophical pessimism are not more able to bind the biomedical progress. What is important for bioethicists and humanity as whole, is a habitude of resilience consisting not of rejecting categorically the biomedical practices but to appreciate them according to the good there are able to achieve.
| Published in | International Journal of Biomedical Engineering and Clinical Science (Volume 7, Issue 1) |
| DOI | 10.11648/j.ijbecs.20210701.12 |
| Page(s) | 7-13 |
| Creative Commons |
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited. |
| Copyright |
Copyright © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Science Publishing Group |
Ethics, Enhancing Medicine, Human Nature, Transethics, Resilience
| [1] | Savulescu, J. (2009). «Genetic Enhancement». In Blackwell Companion to Bioethics, Second Edition, edicted by Helga Kuhse and Peter Singer, A John & Sons, Ltd., Publication, p. 22. |
| [2] | Beauchamp, T. and Childress, J. (2001). Principles of Biomedical Ethics. Fith Edition, New York, Oxford University Press, p. 114. |
| [3] | Littré, E. Oeuvres Complètes d’Hippocrate., Paris, Librairie de l’Académie Royale de Médecine, 1841, Epidémie, Livre 1, 5. |
| [4] | Singer, P. (1996). Rethinking Life and Death: The Collapse of our Traditional Ethics. St. Martin’s Griffin, New York, p. 57. |
| [5] | Ameriks, K. and Clarke, D. (1998). «Immanuel Kant, Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals». In Cambridge Texts in the History of Philosophy, Cambridge University Press, p. xxii. |
| [6] | Bouton, C. E. et al (2016). «Restoring Cortical Control of Functional Movement in a Human with Quadriplegia». Nature, 533, p. 247-250. |
| [7] | Savulescu, J. (2009). «Genetic Enhancement». In Blackwell Companion to Bioethics, Second edition, edicted by Helga Kuhse and Peter Singer, A John & Sons, Ltd., Publication, pp. 218-219. |
| [8] | Kuhse, H. and Singer, P. (2009). Blackwell Companion to Bioethics. Second edition, edicted by, A John & Sons, Ltd., Publication, pp. 218-219. |
| [9] | President’s Council on Bioethics (2003). Beyond Therapy: A Report by the President’s Council on Bioethics. Washington, DC: President’s Council on Bioethics. |
| [10] | Sandel, M. (2007). The Case Against Perfection: Ethics in the Age of Genetic Engeneering. Cambridge, MA: Havard University Press, p. 46. |
| [11] | Damour, F. (2015). La Tentation Transhumaniste. Paris, Editions Salvator, p. 60. |
| [12] | Baque, P. (2017). Homme Augmenté, Humanité Diminuée: D’Alzheimer au Transhumanisme, la Science au Service d’une Idéologie Hégémonique et Mercantile. Marseille cedex 20, Agone, p. 288. |
| [13] | Kuhse, H. and Singer, P. (2009). Blackwell Companion to Bioethics. Second edition, edicted by, A John & Sons, Ltd., Publication, pp. 126-127. |
| [14] | Harris, J. (2007). Enhancing Evolution: the Ethical Case for Making Better People. Princeton & Oxford, Princeton University Press, p. 124. |
| [15] | Damour, F. (2015). La Tentation Transhumaniste. Paris, Editions Salvator, p. 39. |
| [16] | Singularity University has been founded in 2009 by the americans Ray Kurzweil and Peter Diamandis, both futurist engeneers and physicists. The motto of the institution is make the impossible to be possible. The University is situated in the park of NASA near to Palo Alto enterprise alongside the Silicon Valley. Singularity in itself designates a particular human being endowed with the very high capacity of facing difficulties. For the founders, the Artificial Intelligence will realise later in 2035 the Artificial human being and technologies will evolve with the very high speed. I will be the end of man’s mortality. |
| [17] | Damour, F. (2015). La tentation transhumaniste. Paris, Editions Salvator, p. 57-58. |
| [18] | Alexandre, L. (2014). La Mort de la Mort, Comment la Technomédecine va Bouleverser l’Humanité. Editions Jean-Claude Lattès, p. 87. |
| [19] | Ferry, L. (2016). La Révolution Transhumaniste, Comment la Technomédecine et l’Uberistaion du Monde vont Bouleverser nos Vies. Paris, Editions Plon, p. 26. |
| [20] | Ferry, L. (2016). La Révolution Transhumaniste, Comment la Technomédecine et l’Uberistaion du Monde vont Bouleverser nos Vies. Paris, Editions Plon, p. 98-99. |
| [21] | Fukuyama, F. (2002). Our Posthuman Future: Consequences of the Biotechnology Revolution. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York, p. 209. |
APA Style
Ismaila Mboutngam. (2021). Ethical Principles Under the Challenge of Enhancing Medecine. International Journal of Biomedical Engineering and Clinical Science, 7(1), 7-13. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijbecs.20210701.12
ACS Style
Ismaila Mboutngam. Ethical Principles Under the Challenge of Enhancing Medecine. Int. J. Biomed. Eng. Clin. Sci. 2021, 7(1), 7-13. doi: 10.11648/j.ijbecs.20210701.12
AMA Style
Ismaila Mboutngam. Ethical Principles Under the Challenge of Enhancing Medecine. Int J Biomed Eng Clin Sci. 2021;7(1):7-13. doi: 10.11648/j.ijbecs.20210701.12
Share This Article
Twitter
Linked In
Facebook
Copy
Download@article{10.11648/j.ijbecs.20210701.12,
author = {Ismaila Mboutngam},
title = {Ethical Principles Under the Challenge of Enhancing Medecine},
journal = {International Journal of Biomedical Engineering and Clinical Science},
volume = {7},
number = {1},
pages = {7-13},
doi = {10.11648/j.ijbecs.20210701.12},
url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijbecs.20210701.12},
eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ijbecs.20210701.12},
abstract = {Our purpose in this article is to make a prospectivist evaluation of the enhancing medicine regarding the human nature. From this, we are interested by the future of humanity within the project of artificializing human life. In order to achieve our epistemological aim, we have distributed this work into three main parts. The first part is an analysis of medical ethical principles that are presented as the safety belt of human nature. The human being within Hippocratic tradition of medicine has always been treated with certain consideration since he is an absolute value. In all circumstances, physicians were bound to preserve live and protect human dignity. Then, the medical paradigm prevailing was the therapeutic one. In the second part, the concern is to scrutinize the biotechnological revolution mainly the process of genetic engineering. This revolution brought alongside medical practices another version of treating human being. It is the version of higher experimentation and scientific curiosity. Therefore, the practitioners of genetic engineering proceed by a profound intervention in human genome in order, not mainly to cure disease, but to discover what makes life and others human functions be possible. When these are discovered, they can program, design and enhance the future human being. This practice cannot go on without raising ethical questions such as the risk of alteration of human nature. It can also bring in the society the social injustice, giving the fact that those practices are more expensive to be at the level of all the social classes. The most eminent consequence of this social injustice is what we name bioimperialism where the natural human beings will become the slaves of artificial and enhanced human beings. Finally, we will bring a new perspective to contain the risks of enhancing medicine. It is necessary that man must recognize the limits of his power and the effects that the overuse of that power can generate as disasters. However, it is also relevant to notice that, enhancing medicine has already gained public opinion. Accordingly, theorical discourses of bioethicists and philosophical pessimism are not more able to bind the biomedical progress. What is important for bioethicists and humanity as whole, is a habitude of resilience consisting not of rejecting categorically the biomedical practices but to appreciate them according to the good there are able to achieve.},
year = {2021}
}
TY - JOUR T1 - Ethical Principles Under the Challenge of Enhancing Medecine AU - Ismaila Mboutngam Y1 - 2021/03/12 PY - 2021 N1 - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijbecs.20210701.12 DO - 10.11648/j.ijbecs.20210701.12 T2 - International Journal of Biomedical Engineering and Clinical Science JF - International Journal of Biomedical Engineering and Clinical Science JO - International Journal of Biomedical Engineering and Clinical Science SP - 7 EP - 13 PB - Science Publishing Group SN - 2472-1301 UR - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijbecs.20210701.12 AB - Our purpose in this article is to make a prospectivist evaluation of the enhancing medicine regarding the human nature. From this, we are interested by the future of humanity within the project of artificializing human life. In order to achieve our epistemological aim, we have distributed this work into three main parts. The first part is an analysis of medical ethical principles that are presented as the safety belt of human nature. The human being within Hippocratic tradition of medicine has always been treated with certain consideration since he is an absolute value. In all circumstances, physicians were bound to preserve live and protect human dignity. Then, the medical paradigm prevailing was the therapeutic one. In the second part, the concern is to scrutinize the biotechnological revolution mainly the process of genetic engineering. This revolution brought alongside medical practices another version of treating human being. It is the version of higher experimentation and scientific curiosity. Therefore, the practitioners of genetic engineering proceed by a profound intervention in human genome in order, not mainly to cure disease, but to discover what makes life and others human functions be possible. When these are discovered, they can program, design and enhance the future human being. This practice cannot go on without raising ethical questions such as the risk of alteration of human nature. It can also bring in the society the social injustice, giving the fact that those practices are more expensive to be at the level of all the social classes. The most eminent consequence of this social injustice is what we name bioimperialism where the natural human beings will become the slaves of artificial and enhanced human beings. Finally, we will bring a new perspective to contain the risks of enhancing medicine. It is necessary that man must recognize the limits of his power and the effects that the overuse of that power can generate as disasters. However, it is also relevant to notice that, enhancing medicine has already gained public opinion. Accordingly, theorical discourses of bioethicists and philosophical pessimism are not more able to bind the biomedical progress. What is important for bioethicists and humanity as whole, is a habitude of resilience consisting not of rejecting categorically the biomedical practices but to appreciate them according to the good there are able to achieve. VL - 7 IS - 1 ER -
Information
Email: