title: Exploring discourse surrounding therapeutic enhancement of veterans and soldiers with injuries.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Human enhancement (the enhancement of the abilities of a normative person beyond the norm) of soldiers has been debated for some time. However, therapeutic enhancement of soldiers and veterans with injuries (the enhancement of the abilities of a sub-normative labeled person beyond the norm) is much less discussed.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  This article discusses 1) historical examples of policies and views linked to soldiers and veterans that have been injured in the Americas, and perception of injured veterans and soldiers; 2) the science and technology of the therapeutic enhancement landscape and 3) views of veterans on therapeutic enhancements.
  
  
  METHODS
  Three methods were used: a) historical search of policy documents; b) content analysis of the New York Times and c) online delivered exploratory non-probability survey using the Survey Monkey platform.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Researchers found that veterans played a special role in policy developments in the United States, such as disability pension plans, and that veterans who were injured were portrayed more positively than other people with disabilities in the NYT from 1851-2010. However, within the current public discourse around the use of enhancement enabling therapeutic assistive devices, the voices of injured soldiers and veterans are not visible.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Therapeutic enhancements, especially of injured soldiers and veterans, are an under researched area with various open ethical questions in need of more coverage.
authors.affiliation: Department of Community Health Sciences, Program of Community Rehabilitation and Disability Studies, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada.
authors.forename: Gregor
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Wolbring
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Medicine, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada.
authors.forename: Angelica
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Martin
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Kinesiology, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada.
authors.forename: Jeremy
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Tynedal
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Medicine, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada.
authors.forename: Natalie
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Ball
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Medicine, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada.
authors.forename: Sophya
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Yumakulov
mesh_terms: D024803:Biomedical Enhancement / Q000379:methods*; D006233:Persons with Disabilities / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D006801:Humans; D054542:Iraq War, 2003-2011; D008889:Military Personnel; D012656:Self-Help Devices; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014481:United States
keywords: Human enhancements; ethics; injured veterans; soldiers; veterans