Covert moral bioenhancement, public health, and autonomy

In a recent article in this journal, Parker Crutchfield argues that if moral bioenhancement ought to be compulsory, as some authors claim, then it ought to be covert, i.e., performed without the knowledge of the population that is being morally enhanced. Crutchfield argues that since the aim of comp...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Zambrano, Alexander (Author)
Contributors: Crutchfield, Parker (Bibliographic antecedent)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Wiley-Blackwell [2019]
In: Bioethics
Year: 2019, Volume: 33, Issue: 6, Pages: 725-728
IxTheo Classification:NCH Medical ethics
ZD Psychology
Further subjects:B moral enhancement
B Harm
B Public Health Ethics
B Autonomy
Online Access: Volltext (Verlag)
Volltext (doi)
Description
Summary:In a recent article in this journal, Parker Crutchfield argues that if moral bioenhancement ought to be compulsory, as some authors claim, then it ought to be covert, i.e., performed without the knowledge of the population that is being morally enhanced. Crutchfield argues that since the aim of compulsory moral bioenhancement is to prevent ultimate harm to the population, compulsory moral bioenhancement is best categorized as a public health issue, and should therefore be governed by the norms and values that apply in public health settings. In this article, I argue for two related claims. First, I question the extent to which compulsory moral enhancement should be considered a public health issue that ought to be governed by the norms and values that apply in public health settings. Second, I argue that Crutchfield's argument that covert moral bioenhancement would better respect people's autonomy than an overt program overlooks two important autonomy-based reasons that, in fact, favor an overt moral enhancement program over a covert one.
ISSN:1467-8519
Reference:Kritik von "Compulsory moral bioenhancement should be covert (2019)"
Kritik in "It is better to be ignorant of our moral enhancement (2020)"
Contains:Enthalten in: Bioethics
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1111/bioe.12567