Medical Ethics in a Transhumanist Perspective
Abstract
The ethics of transhumanism, i.e. the ethics of human enhancement, is a deontological ethics with the imperative to do good as the basic moral norm. However, the specific practical actions through which a given good is to be realized are assessed in terms of the expected consequences. Thus, transhumanist ethics is essentially consequentialist ethics, and since the transhumanist attitude is expressed in the pursuit of human enhancement, so any “improvement” realized is considered to be an increase in the sum of the good as a result of increased human well-being. Thus, the ethics of human enhancement is a utilitarian ethics. Medical ethics is deontological in nature, but in a transhumanist perspective it becomes a utilitarian ethics – an “improvement” action is judged moral if it increases the sum of the good. This must significantly change the understanding of the basic principles of medical ethics. This change will be a part of a broader and more fundamental change, involving blurring the line between therapeutic and “improving” actions and giving the latter both individual and social dimensions.
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