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Habermas, Human Agency, and Human Genetic Enhancement

The Grown, the Made, and Responsibility for Actions

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 February 2012

Extract

Recent developments in genomic science hold out the tantalizing prospect of soon being able to treat and prevent a wide variety of medical conditions through gene therapy. In time, it may be possible to use similar techniques not simply to combat disease but also to enhance, or improve on, normal human functioning.

Type
Special Section: Kant, Habermas, and Bioethics
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2012

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References

Notes

1. Habermas, J.The Future of Human Nature. Cambridge: Polity Press; 2003, at22.Google Scholar

2. Harris, J.Enhancing Evolution. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press; 2007, at137.Google Scholar

3. Harris, J.No sex selection please, we’re British. Journal of Medical Ethics 2005;31:286.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed

4. See note 1, Habermas 2003, at 25.

5. See note 2, Harris 2007, at 140.

6. Sandel, MJ.The Case Against Perfection: Ethics in the Age of Genetic Engineering. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press; 2007, at81.Google Scholar

7. See note 1, Habermas 2003:58.

8. See note 6, Sandel 2007, at 81.

9. Sandel, MJ. The case against perfection: What’s wrong with designer children, bionic athletes, and genetic engineering. In: Savulescu, J, Bostrom, N, eds. Human Enhancement. Oxford: Oxford University Press; 2009, at86.Google Scholar

10. See Wolf, S. Sanity and the metaphysics of responsibility. In: Schoeman, FD, ed. Responsibility, Character and the Emotions: New Essays in Moral Psychology. New York: Oxford University Press; 1988:4662.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

11. See note 1, Habermas 2003, at 53.