The Bioethics of Enhancement : Transhumanism, Disability, and Biopolitics

In a critical intervention into the bioethics debate over human enhancement, philosopher Melinda Hall tackles the claim that the expansion and development of human capacities is a moral obligation. Hall draws on French philosopher Michel Foucault to reveal and challenge the ways disability is central to the conversation. The Bioethics of Enhancement includes a close reading and analysis of the last century of enhancement thinking and contemporary transhumanist thinkers, the strongest promoters of the obligation to pursue enhancement technology. With specific attention to the work of bioethicists Nick Bostrom and Julian Savulescu, the book challenges the rhetoric and strategies of enhancement thinking. These include the desire to transcend the body and decide who should live in future generations through emerging technologies such as genetic selection. Hall provides new analyses rethinking both the philosophy of enhancement and disability, arguing that enhancement should be a matter of social and political interventions, not genetic and biological interventions. Hall concludes that human vulnerability and difference should be cherished rather than extinguished. This book will be of interest to academics working in bioethics and disability studies, along with those working in Continental philosophy (especially on Foucault). "[The author examines] the claim that the expansion and development of human capacities is a moral obligation. [The author] draws on French philosopher Michel Foucault to reveal and challenge the ways disability is central to the conversation. [This book] includes a close reading and analysis of the last century of enhancement thinking and contemporary transhumanist thinkers, the strongest promoters of the obligation to pursue enhancement technology. With specific attention to the work of bioethicists Nick Bostrom and Julian Savulescu, the book challenges the rhetoric and strategies of enhancement thinking. These include the desire to transcend the body and decide who should live in future generations through emerging technologies such as genetic selection. [The author] provides new analyses rethinking both the philosophy of enhancement and disability, arguing that enhancement should be a matter of social and political interventions, not genetic and biological interventions. [The author] concludes that human vulnerability and difference should be cherished rather than extinguished."-- Back cover Title Page 4 Copyright 5 Table of Contents 6 Acknowledgments 8 Introduction: Enhancement, Disability, and Biopolitics 10 1 Dragon Slayers: Exploring Transhumanism 24 2 Rethinking Disability: Dodging Definitions, Muddying Models 52 3 Rethinking Enhancement: A Genealogical Approach 80 4 Choosing, for Choice’s Sake: A Case Study 108 5 Disability as/at Risk: The Biopolitics of Disability 142 Conclusion: Rethinking the Future 158 Bibliography 164 Index 186 About the Author 192 This book is a critical intervention into debate over human enhancement and engages bioethics, disability studies, and Michel Foucault. Melinda Hall employs a biopolitical framework to argue that transhumanist thinkers present diminished images of the good life and seriously devalue disabled lives by linking disability with risk and death.