Thinking across species--a critical bioethics approach to enhancement.
Drawing upon a concept of 'critical bioethics' [7] this paper takes a species-broad approach to the social and ethical aspects of enhancement. Critical Bioethics aims to foreground interdisciplinarity, socio-political dimensions, as well as reflexivity to what becomes bioethical subject matter. This paper focuses upon the latter component and uses the example of animal enhancement as a way to think about both enhancement generally, and bioethics. It constructs several arguments for including animal enhancement as a part of enhancement debates, and considers some connections between human and animal enhancement. The paper concludes in a plea for an 'enhancement' to our critical abilities to examine some of the underlying social, moral and ethical assumptions bound up in varied anticipated 'enhanced' futures.
Twine
Richard
R
ESRC Centre for Economic and Social Aspects of Genomics, Lancaster University, IAS Building, County South, Lancaster, LA1 4YD, UK. r.twine@lancaster.ac.uk
D000383:Agriculture; D000818:Animals; D026688:Bioethical Issues; D026689:Ethical Analysis; D024861:Genetic Enhancement / Q000941:ethics*; D006801:Humans; D012941:Social Responsibility; D012945:Social Values