Abstract

In the heated debate about trans-humanism the main battleground remains, in my view, the human body. If trans-humanism holds that current human nature could be improved through the use of advanced science and technologies, it has become self-evident that human enhancement technology intends to overcome the corporality of human nature. Two questions arise at this point. One is, just what happens to our body? We need to ask first what is going on in or on our body when we apply human enhancement technology to ourselves and what exactly the costs are going to be. And, second, just what kind of moral role does the body play in making our life more human? The answer I want to give is that the ethical question how to live must be based on cultivating our body. In the following I will try to explore what is involved in modifying human nature. What can be “enhanced” and to what extent on and in our body through enhancement technology? While trying to answer these questions, I argue that body is the limit of human enhancement.