HUMAN ENHANCEMENT TECHNOLOGIES A REASONED PRO-ENHANCEMENT APPROACH EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT | 24.02.09 PROFESSOR ANDY MIAH, PHD | email@andymiah.net

uncertainty

I’m a cyborg, but that’s ok

From chance to choice

THERAPY ENHANCEMENT RITALIN PGD ANTI-DEPRESSANTS RITALIN PGD ANTI-DEPRESSANTS

disability ability

HUMAN ENHANCEMENT CONTESTED VALUE ACCEPTED VALUE TRANSHUMAN b) i) flight ii) Teleportation TRANSHUMAN a) super height life-span intelligence memory drugs health-span PGD (non-disease) cosmetic surgery leg lengthening innoculations flouridization of water ritalin

PGDiagnosis / PGSelection Image fr om GATTACA courtesy of the direc to r 1. Accepted Value For selecting out genetic disease 2. Contested Value For selecting preferred characteristics (sex) 3. Radical Transhuman Enhancement 3a) selecting a healthier embryo 3b) i) selecting an embryo whose characteristics extend what is humanly known 3b) ii) perhaps transgenic or chimeric embryos, where species are crossed yielding unhuman-like characteristics.

Enhancement as function?

AESTHETIC Inteventions Image courtesy of Pipilotti Rist

TRANSGENIC alterations Image by Eduardo Kac

ACCUMULATION OF THE CAPITAL BIOCULTURAL

BIOCULTURAL CAPITAL The term 'cultural capital' refers to the knowledge of and skills in the discursive realm relating to society, the arts, leisure, sport, science, politics and all the other elements recognised as 'culture' in society at large (Rojek 1995: 68).

BIOCULTURAL CAPITAL Bourdieu recognises that acts of labour are required to turn bodies into social entities and that these acts influence how people develop and hold the physical shape of their bodies, and learn how to present their bodies through styles of walk, talk and dress. Far from being natural, these represent highly skilled and socially differentiated accomplishments which start to be learned early in childhood. As it develops, the body bears the indisputable imprint of the individual's social class (in Rojek 1995)

public reaction Image by Andy Miah

How does the story of Steve Kurtz inform how we think about the ethics of science and its regulation via policy? public confidence public engagement

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