Class Eight/Students

From Cyberlaw

Transhumanist Approach to Genetic Enhancements

I think the transhumanist article than Gray posted made some good points regarding genetic enhancements. For example, I agree with the notion that genetic enhancements could have as many or more positive benefits than negative effects. I also thought their suggestion that it might be much easier to eradicate a diseased genome than to make an already OK genome even better was very insightful and seems highly plausible. The transhumanists also seem to contemplate the potential downsides to their stance. However, this approach can be as easily criticized as the Sandel position. For example, they state that future generations could easily revert the enhanced genome if they do not like what they see, but is this really plausible? Assume for example, that we figure out how to eliminate a certain trait, if this trait has never been in the future population and they have never experienced it, how would they ever know that they missed it and therefore wanted to revert back? Therefore, it seems as though reversion is less likely than the transhumanists suggest. Also, they fail to appreciate the potential that eliminating one trait might have on other traits. For example, it is possible that individuals deficient in one trait compensate by being better in other traits, for example like blind people generally have enhanced non-sight senses. In addition, perhaps there are some diseased states that lead to certain characteristics that are beneficial for human survival. Therefore, if these diseased states are eradicated, the traits associated with them will also disappear. Finally, their argument also suffers line-drawing problems, for example when they discuss promoting changes that lead to positive externalities versus those than lead to negative externalities. Who gets to decide whether a given effect is positive or negative? And would we really be able to measure subtle differences? Personally I’m not opposed to genetic enhancements, but that might be because I think science is far away from performing genetic enhancements that people consider very scary. In addition, it is important to note that nature is improving the genome constantly through the process of natural selection. This improvement allows organisms to better adapt to their environments, but it takes many years to observe. Therefore, improvement of the species seems to be a pre-programmed process. Laurieburlingame 12:01, 5 April 2006 (EDT)