Journal of Medical Ethics 39 (2):77-78 (2013)
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I shall discuss only one of Nicholas Agar's main claims,1 namely ‘that the bad consequences/of moral status enhancement/are, in moral terms, so bad that a moderate probability of their occurrence makes it wrong not to seek to prevent them’. His other main claim, which I grant, is that moral status enhancement to the effect of creating beings with a moral status higher than that of persons—post-persons—is possible. My chief objection to Agar's argument is that it is biased in favour of persons. This comes out when he sums it up: ‘the creation of post-persons would be a morally bad thing. It is likely to impose significant penalties on mere persons’. Suppose it is true that the creation of post-persons will impose such significant penalties on mere persons that they are worse off than they were before the creation of post-persons. Then it follows that the creation of post-persons is bad for mere persons, but it does not follow that it is bad overall. This follows only if it is not the case that post-persons receive benefits to an extent that morally outweighs the burdens to mere persons. As far as I can see, Agar does not show this—that is why I think he is biased towards mere persons, and simply assumes that what is bad for them is bad overall.I have, in fact, been too concessive to Agar …
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DOI | 10.1136/medethics-2012-100836 |
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References found in this work BETA
Unfit for the Future: The Need for Moral Enhancement.Ingmar Persson & Julian Savulescu - 2012 - Oxford University Press UK.
Why is It Possible to Enhance Moral Status and Why Doing so is Wrong?Nicholas Agar - 2013 - Journal of Medical Ethics 39 (2):67-74.
Citations of this work BETA
Egalitarianism and Moral Bioenhancement.Robert Sparrow - 2014 - American Journal of Bioethics 14 (4):20-28.
The Morality of Moral Neuroenhancement.Thomas Douglas - forthcoming - In Clausen Jens & Levy Neil (eds.), Handbook of Neuroethics. Springer.
We Must Create Beings with Moral Standing Superior to Our Own.Vojin Rakić - 2015 - Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics 24 (1):58-65.
Confronting Existential Risks With Voluntary Moral Bioenhancement.Vojin Rakić & Milan M. Ćirković - 2016 - Journal of Evolution and Technology 26 (2):48-59.
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