Main description:

Biotechnologies already on the horizon will enable us to be smarter, have better memories, be stronger and quicker, have more stamina, live longer, be more resistant to diseases, and enjoy richer emotional lives. To some of us, these prospects are heartening; to others, they are dreadful. In Beyond Humanity a leading philosopher offers a powerful and controversial exploration of urgent ethical issues concerning human enhancement. These raise enduring
questions about what it is to be human, about individuality, about our relationship to nature, and about what sort of society we should strive to have. Allen E. Buchanan urges that the debate about enhancement needs to be informed by a proper understanding of evolutionary biology, which has discredited the
simplistic conceptions of human nature used by many opponents of enhancement. He argues that there are powerful reasons for us to embark on the enhancement enterprise, and no objections to enhancement that are sufficient to outweigh them.

Contents:

1. The Landscape of the Enhancement Debate ; 2. Enhancement and Human Development Enhancement and Human Development ; 3. Character ; 4. Human Nature and the Natural ; 5. Conservatism and Enhancement ; 6. Unintended Bad Consequences ; 7. Moral Status and Enhancement ; 8. Distributive Justice and the Diffusion of Innovations