Skip to main content Skip to main navigation menu Skip to site footer
  • Register
  • Login
  • Language
    • Deutsch
    • English
    • Español (España)
    • Français (France)
    • Italiano
    • Język Polski
  • Menu
  • Home
  • Current
  • Archives
  • Announcements
  • About
    • About the Journal
    • Submissions
    • Editorial Team
    • Scientific Council
    • Reviewers
    • Review process
    • Open Access Policy
    • Ethical Standards
    • Article Processing Charges and Submission Charges
    • Privacy Statement
    • Archiving policy
    • Contact
  • Register
  • Login
  • Language:
  • Deutsch
  • English
  • Español (España)
  • Français (France)
  • Italiano
  • Język Polski

Scientia et Fides

Objectivity and human bioenhancement. The paradox of the natural
  • Home
  • /
  • Objectivity and human bioenhancement. The paradox of the natural
  1. Home /
  2. Archives /
  3. Vol. 7 No. 2 (2019): Transhumanism /
  4. Articles

Objectivity and human bioenhancement. The paradox of the natural

Authors

  • Francisco Güell Universidad de Navarra [Embryo, Human Development & Society (EHDAS.org)]; "Mind-brain Group". Institute for Culture and Society (ICS) - Pamplona https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3408-6175
  • Luis Enrique Echarte Grupo Mente-Cerebro, Instituto Cultura y Sociedad / Unidad de Humanidades y Ética Médica. Facultad de Medicina, Universidad de Navarra https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8059-1992
  • José Ignacio Murillo Grupo Mente-cerebro, Instituto Cultura y Sociedad, Universidad de Navarra  https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9789-5573

Keywords

transhumanism, enhancement, genetic manipulation, well-being, quality of life, human nature

Abstract

For transhumanism, humanity is a stage which, guided by biological evolution, was preceded by other earlier stages and which will be followed by others that are newer. According to transhumanism, we must break the inertia of blind causes that govern evolution and, through biotechnology, attain what is called a “better life”. Those authors who are supportive of this current of thought develop their proposals by negating the existence of a human nature, but without abandoning the conviction that it will be possible to define what a “better life” consists in. In this article we will analyze the clarity and rigor with which transhumanists present the ultimate goal of their proposal, the relation between the end and the means proposed for attaining it, and, finally, we will bring to light certain inconsistencies that result from their rejection of the position that human nature could have a normative value.

References

Agar, N., Liberal Eugenics: In Defense of Human Enhancement, Blackwell Publishing, Oxford, 2004

Bostrom, N., “Human Genetic Enhancements: A Transhumanist Perspective”, Journal of Value Inquiry, 3 (4) 2003, pp. 493-506.

Bostrom, N., Roache, R. “Ethical issues in Human Enhancement” in Ryberg, J., Petersen T., Wolf C., (eds). New Waves in Applied Ethics, Pelgrave Macmillan, 2008, pp. 120-152.

Buchanan, A., Brock, D., Daniels, N., Wilker, D., From Chance to Choice, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2000.

Buchanan, A., “Enhancement and the Ethics of Development”, Kennedy Institute of Ethics Journal 18 (1), 2008, pp. 1-34.

De Melo-Martin, I., “On our obligation t Select the best Children: A Replay to Savulescu”, Bioethics 18, 2005, pp. 72-83.

Echarte, LE., “Neurocosmética, transhumanismo y materialismo eliminativo”, Cuadernos de Bioética 23, 2012, pp. 37-51.

Feinberg, J., “The child’s right to an open future”, en Aiken, W., LaFollette, H. (eds.) Whose Child? Parental Rights, Parental Authority and State Power, Totowa, NJ, Rowman and Littlefield. 1980, pp. 124-153.

Fukuyama, F., Our Posthuman Future. Consequences of the Biotechnology Revolution, Picador, New York, 2002.

Güell, F. (2014) "The Post-Humanist Embryo: Genetic manipulation and The Principle of Procreative Beneficence", Cuadernos de bioética, XXV 2014/3ª, 427-443.

Guyatt, Gh., Feeny Dh., Patrick Dl. “Measuring health-related quality of life”, Annals of internal Medicine, 1993; 118(8), pp. 622-629.

Habermas, J., The Future of Human Nature, Polity Press, Cambridge, 2001.

Harris, J., On Cloning, Routledge, London, 2004

Hauskeller, M., “Reinventing Cockaigne: Utopian Themes in Transhumanist Thought”, Hastings Center Report 42 (2), 2012, pp. 39-47.

Hollingworth, L., Children above 180 IQ (Stanford-Binet): origin and development, Yonkers-on-Hudson, World Book, New York, 1942.

HUMANITYPLUS. ORG [Home page] Connecticut: Humanity plus. Aviable in https://humanityplus.org/about/ [consultado 2019, febrero 19]

HUMANITYPLUS. ORG [Home page] Connecticut: Humanity plus. Aviable in https://humanityplus.org/about/mission/ [consultado 2019, Marzo 29].

Jaegger, W., Paideia: Los ideales de la cultura griega, Fondo de Cultura Económica, México, 1995.

More, M. (1990). Transhumanism: Towards a futurist philosophy. Extropy, 6(6), 11.

Murillo, J.I., “Health as a norm and principle of intelligibility”, en García, A. N., Silar, M., Torralba, J. M., Natural Law: Historical, Systematic and Juridical Approaches, Cambridge Scholar Publishing, Newcastle 2008, pp. 361-378.

Naughton, M.J., Shumaker, S.A., Anderson R.T., Czajkowski, S.M. “Psychological Aspects of Health-Related Quality of Life Measurement: Tests and Scales” en Spilker, B.(ed.) Quality of Life and Pharmaco economics in Clinical Trials. Lippincott-Raven, New York, 1996.

Postigo, E., Transumanesimo e postumano: principi teorici e implicazioni bioetiche, Medicina e Morale 2009/2, pp. 267-282.

Savulescu, J. “The moral obligation to create children with the best Chance of the best life”, Bioethics 23 (5), 2009, pp. 274-290.

Savulescu, J. Y Devolder, K., “Therapeutic Cloning is Moral” en Haugen, D., Musser, S. Y Lovelace, K. (eds.) In Issue: The Ethics of Cloning. Greenhaven Press, 2009, pp. 57-72.

Savulescu, J., ¿Decisiones peligrosas? Una bioética desafiante. Tecnos, Madrid, 2012.

Savulescu, J., “Genetic interventions and the ethics of enhancement of human beings” en Steinbock, B. (ed.) The Oxford Handbook on Bioethics. Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2007, pp. 516-535.

Savulescu, J., Procreative Beneficence: Why We Should Select de Best Children, Bioethics 15, 2001, pp. 413-426.

Searle, J., The Construction of Social Reality, The Free Press, New York, 1995.

Velázquez Fernández, H. “Transhumanismo, libertad e identidad humana”, Thémata. Revista de Filosofía 41, 2009 pp. 577-590.

Scientia et Fides

Downloads

  • PDF (Español (España))

Published

2019-09-26

How to Cite

1.
GÜELL, Francisco, ECHARTE, Luis Enrique and MURILLO, José Ignacio. Objectivity and human bioenhancement. The paradox of the natural. Scientia et Fides. Online. 26 September 2019. Vol. 7, no. 2, pp. 195-214. [Accessed 5 July 2025].
  • ISO 690
  • ACM
  • ACS
  • APA
  • ABNT
  • Chicago
  • Harvard
  • IEEE
  • MLA
  • Turabian
  • Vancouver
Download Citation
  • Endnote/Zotero/Mendeley (RIS)
  • BibTeX

Issue

Vol. 7 No. 2 (2019): Transhumanism

Section

Articles

License

CC BY ND 4.0. The Creator/Contributor is the Licensor, who grants the Licensee a non-exclusive license to use the Work on the fields indicated in the License Agreement.

  • The Licensor grants the Licensee a non-exclusive license to use the Work/related rights item specified in § 1 within the following fields: a) recording of Work/related rights item; b) reproduction (multiplication) of Work/related rights item in print and digital technology (e-book, audiobook); c) placing the copies of the multiplied Work/related rights item on the market; d) entering the Work/related rights item to computer memory; e) distribution of the work in electronic version in the open access form on the basis of Creative Commons license (CC BY-ND 3.0) via the digital platform of the Nicolaus Copernicus University Press and file repository of the Nicolaus Copernicus University.
  • Usage of the recorded Work by the Licensee within the above fields is not restricted by time, numbers or territory.
  • The Licensor grants the license for the Work/related rights item to the Licensee free of charge and for an unspecified period of time.

FULL TEXT License Agreement

Stats

Number of views and downloads: 712
Number of citations: 0

ISSN/eISSN

ISSN: 2300-7648

eISSN: 2353-5636

Search

Search

Browse

  • Browse Author Index
  • Issue archive

User

User

Current Issue

  • Atom logo
  • RSS2 logo
  • RSS1 logo

Information

  • For Readers
  • For Authors
  • For Librarians

Newsletter

Subscribe Unsubscribe

Language

  • Deutsch
  • English
  • Español (España)
  • Français (France)
  • Italiano
  • Język Polski

Tags

Search using one of provided tags:

transhumanism, enhancement, genetic manipulation, well-being, quality of life, human nature
Up

Akademicka Platforma Czasopism

Najlepsze czasopisma naukowe i akademickie w jednym miejscu

apcz.umk.pl

Partners

  • Akademia Ignatianum w Krakowie
  • Akademickie Towarzystwo Andragogiczne
  • Fundacja Copernicus na rzecz Rozwoju Badań Naukowych
  • Instytut Historii im. Tadeusza Manteuffla Polskiej Akademii Nauk
  • Instytut Kultur Śródziemnomorskich i Orientalnych PAN
  • Instytut Tomistyczny
  • Karmelitański Instytut Duchowości w Krakowie
  • Ministerstwo Kultury i Dziedzictwa Narodowego
  • Państwowa Akademia Nauk Stosowanych w Krośnie
  • Państwowa Akademia Nauk Stosowanych we Włocławku
  • Państwowa Wyższa Szkoła Zawodowa im. Stanisława Pigonia w Krośnie
  • Polska Fundacja Przemysłu Kosmicznego
  • Polskie Towarzystwo Ekonomiczne
  • Polskie Towarzystwo Ludoznawcze
  • Towarzystwo Miłośników Torunia
  • Towarzystwo Naukowe w Toruniu
  • Uniwersytet im. Adama Mickiewicza w Poznaniu
  • Uniwersytet Komisji Edukacji Narodowej w Krakowie
  • Uniwersytet Mikołaja Kopernika
  • Uniwersytet w Białymstoku
  • Uniwersytet Warszawski
  • Wojewódzka Biblioteka Publiczna - Książnica Kopernikańska
  • Wyższe Seminarium Duchowne w Pelplinie / Wydawnictwo Diecezjalne „Bernardinum" w Pelplinie

© 2021- Nicolaus Copernicus University Accessibility statement Shop