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Human Enhancement and the Story of Job

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 May 2017

NICHOLAS AGAR  and
JOHNNY MCDONALD
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Abstract:

This article explores some implications of the concept of transformative change for the debate about human enhancement. A transformative change is understood to be one that significantly alters the value an individual places on his or her experiences or achievements. The clearest examples of transformative change come from science fiction, but the concept can be illuminatingly applied to the enhancement debate. We argue that it helps to expose a threat from too much enhancement to many of the things that make human lives valuable. Among the things threated by enhancement are our relationships with other human beings. The potential to lose these relationships provides a compelling reason for almost all humans to reject too much enhancement.

Keywords

human enhancementtransformative changerelationships
Type
Special Section: Enhancement and Goodness
Information
Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics , Volume 26 , Issue 3 , July 2017 , pp. 449 - 458
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2017 

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References

Notes

1. Agar, N. Truly Human Enhancement: A Philosophical Defense of Limits. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press; 2014, at xi.Google Scholar

2. See note 1, Agar 2014, at xi.

3. Harris, J. Enhancing Evolution. Princeton: Princeton University Press; 2007, at 9.Google Scholar

4. Job 1:8–11.

5. Job 1:12.

6. Job 1:14–7, 2:7.

7. Job 1:18–9.

8. Job 42:10.

9. Job 42:13–5.

10. Hartley, J E. The New International Commentary on the Old Testament: The Book of Job. Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co; 1988, at 543.Google Scholar

11. See note 10, Hartley 1988, at 543.

12. Job 42:15.

13. Patterson, F, Tanner, J, Mayer, N. Pragmatic analysis of gorilla utterances: Early communicative development in the gorilla Koko. Journal of Pragmatics 1998;12:35–54.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

14. Chan, S, Harris, J. Post-what (And why does it matter?). In: Lippert-Rasmussen, K, Rosendahl Thomsen, M, Wamberg, J, eds. The Posthuman Condition. Aarhus: Aarhus University Press; 2011, at 85.Google Scholar

15. See note 10, Chan, Harris, at 85–6.

16. Agar, N. Humanity’s End: Why We Should Reject Radical Enhancement. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press; 2010, at 187.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

17. See note 12, Agar 2010, at 187.