Transhumanism and moral equality.
Conservative thinkers such as Francis Fukuyama have produced a battery of objections to the transhumanist project of fundamentally enhancing human capacities. This article examines one of these objections, namely that by allowing some to greatly extend their capacities, we will undermine the fundamental moral equality of human beings. I argue that this objection is groundless: once we understand the basis for human equality, it is clear that anyone who now has sufficient capacities to count as a person from the moral point of view will continue to count as one even if others are fundamentally enhanced; and it is mistaken to think that a creature which had even far greater capacities than an unenhanced human being should count as more than an equal from the moral point of view.
Wilson
James
J
Centre for Professional Ethics, Chancellor's Building, Keele University, Staffordshire, UK. j.g.wilson@peak.keele.ac.uk
D040821:Human Characteristics; D006808:Humanism; D006801:Humans; D028681:Moral Obligations