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E-book
Author Hall, Melinda (Melinda Charis)

Title The bioethics of enhancement : transhumanism, disability, and biopolitics / Melinda Hall
Published Lanham : Lexington Books, 2016

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Description 1 online resource (193 pages)
Contents Introduction : enhancement, disability, and biopolitics -- Dragon slayers : exploring transhumanism -- Rethinking disability : dodging definitions, muddying models -- Rethinking enhancement : a genealogical approach -- Choosing, for choice's sake : a case study -- Disability as/at risk : the biopolitics of disability -- Conclusion : rethinking the future
Summary In a critical intervention into the bioethics debate over human enhancement, philosopher Melinda Hall tackles the claim that the expansion and development of human capacities is a moral obligation. Hall draws on French philosopher Michel Foucault to reveal and challenge the ways disability is central to the conversation. The Bioethics of Enhancement includes a close reading and analysis of the last century of enhancement thinking and contemporary transhumanist thinkers, the strongest promoters of the obligation to pursue enhancement technology. With specific attention to the work of bioethicists Nick Bostrom and Julian Savulescu, the book challenges the rhetoric and strategies of enhancement thinking. These include the desire to transcend the body and decide who should live in future generations through emerging technologies such as genetic selection. Hall provides new analyses rethinking both the philosophy of enhancement and disability, arguing that enhancement should be a matter of social and political interventions, not genetic and biological interventions. Hall concludes that human vulnerability and difference should be cherished rather than extinguished. This book will be of interest to academics working in bioethics and disability studies, along with those working in Continental philosophy (especially on Foucault)
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index
Notes Print version record
Subject Medical innovations -- Moral and ethical aspects
Medical innovations -- Social aspects.
Medical innovations -- Government policy
Medical innovations -- Government policy
Medical innovations -- Moral and ethical aspects
Medical innovations -- Social aspects
Form Electronic book
ISBN 9781498533492
1498533493