human enhancement as basic right - atual

8/12/2019 Human Enhancement as Basic Right - Atual.

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PERSONA

Research Group

CoordinatorProf. Dr. Brunello Stancioli

TeamProf. Dr. Antonio Cota Maral

Prof. Dr. Flvio Guimares da FonsecaAnna Cristina Carvalho Rettore

Daniel Mendes RibeiroLas Godoi Lopes

Mariana Alves LaraNara Pereira Carvalho

Patrick Arley Santiago Barbosa


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FROM THE NECESSITY OF BEING

HUMAN TO THE POSSIBILITY OF

BEING WHATEVER YOU WANT

Human Enhancement as Basic Right

Brunello StancioliLLB, LLM, LLDLaw Professor (UFMG, Brazil);

Academic VisitorOxford Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics

Bennett Foddy (coauthor)


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Sketch

I- Conceptual Basis

II- Person & Body

III- Personal Rights

IV- Final(?) Conclusions


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I- Conceptual Basis

Mario Bunge McGil University.


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I- Conceptual Basis

a) System

If we have a system sthen follows that:

C (s) = Composition: Collection of all parts of s;

E(s) = Environment: Collection of items, other than those in s

that act on or are acted upon some or all components of s;

S (s) = Structure/Organization/Architecture: Collections of

relations, in particular bonds, among components of s or

among these and items in its environmentE(s);

M (s) = Mechanism (modus operandi): Collection of processes in s

that make it behaves the way it does.


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Examples:

Solar System

Composition: planets, the Sun,asteroids, etc.

Environment: the Universe. Structure: disposition and the

interaction between sun and planets,the movement of the planets etc.

Mechanism: the Universal

Gravitation.

I- Conceptual Basis


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The Eco-System

Composition: animals,plants, virus, bacteria, etc.

Environment: water, earth,sunlight, air.

Structure: the manyrelations between theorganisms, as parasitism,mutualism, commensalismetc.

Mechanism: Ecology.

I- Conceptual Basis


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Internet

Composition: PCs,laptops, tablets, wires, etc.

Environment: houses,electricity, universities, humansociety.

Structure: physicalconnections, FTP, e-mails, etc. Mechanism: exchange,(re)production and storage ofinformation.

I- Conceptual Basis


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A Linguistic Community

Composition: people talking the same language.

Environment: culture and Country.

Structure: all social interactions.

Mechanism: mutual understanding/disagreement.

I- Conceptual Basis


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I- Conceptual Basis

b) Emergence

Emergence is a characteristic of complex systemiccollections, in which a set of things has a property (or

properties) that are not had by any of its components, ina way that can be said that a higher level of the system isproduced. Emergence is a property of material systemsand material things, and, as such, requires an explanation,

more than a mere description. Emergence is the reasonwhy there is qualitative novelty, or, putting it more simply,why new things, properties and processes arise from old,known objects.


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I- Conceptual Basis

Examples:

Airplane


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I- Conceptual Basis

Nation-State


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I- Conceptual Basis

Living Beings


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I- Conceptual Basis

c) Person

Composition: a body (necessarily including the brain).

Environment: artifacts, information, language-as-action.

Structure: society (family,polis, state).

Mechanism/modus operandi: during direct and symbolicinteraction with the environment, the information is

encapsulated by the brain, from which emerges an identity,

a sense of self and a person.


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I- Conceptual Basis

Thenewborn infants cannot walk.

They have to learn to walk, and the

help of older persons, already

competent in the art [is needed]. In

short, walking is a skill that emerges

for every individual in the course

of a process of development,through the active involvement of

an agent the child within the

environment.Tim Ingold University ofAberdeen


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I- Conceptual Basis

Tim Ingold University of

Aberdeen

"[T]he abilities both to speak and toread and write emerge within acontinuous process of bodilymodification, involving a fine-tuning

of vocal-auditory and manual-visualskills together with correspondinganatomical changes in the brain, andtaking place within the contexts of the

learner's engagement with other personsand diverse objects in his or herenvironment. Both capacities, in short,are the properties of developmental

systems.


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I- Conceptual Basis

First Conclusions

Human enhancement is not new in human history. Some

forms of enhancement (mainly language) were fundamental for

the emergence of the person and personhood.

Human Enhancements have always been fundamental to the

emergence of personhood.

The main effect of human enhancement is to provide newpossible forms of personhood, thus allowing everyone to live alife according to his own desires and his own conception of the

good life.


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II- Person & Body

What is the bodys role in the concept of person andhis values?


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II- Person & Body

PRE-MODERN CONCEPTIONOF REALITY

MODERN CONCEPTION OFREALITY

1 A given, static Nature, considered an

object of contemplation.

Reality as a process, continuous

flow of changes.

2 The body is the abode of the soul,

therefore it is inviolable.

Body regarded as part of reality;

thus, subjected to constant changes.

3 In the conception (fusion of

gametes), it occurs the infusion of

the soul, moment in which the

person is constituted.

Biological explanations about the

beggining of the life; person just

exists in a social context.

4 Uses of the body pervaded by

taboos.

Persons have got an active role in

the (re)construction of reality, and,

therefore, are agents of self-

manipulation of the body.


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II- Person & Body

Individuals: The P-Predicates and M-Predicates.

Peter Strawson Oxford University.


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II- Person & Body

Williams rebuttal: Body swap experiments.

Bernard Williams Cambridge University.


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II- Person & Body

[A] person is distinct from hisbrain and body, and hisexperiences. But persons are not

separately existing entities. Theexistence of a person, during anyperiod, just consists in theexistence of his brain and his

body, and the thinking of histhoughts, and doing of his deeds,and the occurrence of many otherphysical and mental events.

Derek Parfit Oxford University.


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II- Person & Body

When one change one's body (and brain), does hisvalues change as well?


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II- Person & Body

Total Recall


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II- Person & Body

Hulk


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II- Person & Body

Wolverine


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II- Person & Body

Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde


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II- Person & Body

Technobody vs. Physical Integrity?


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II- Person & Body

Human Enhancement and the Spirit of Sport


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II- Person & Body

Life Span vs. Social Security, Religious Values etc.


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II- Person & Body

New Bodies: New Concept of Health?


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II- Person & Body

Could we even have the right to walk again?

Miguel Nicolelis

Duke University.


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II- Person & Body

ConclusionIf one enhances the body/brain (or equivalent), theperson is enhanced as a whole. This implies new values,new forms of living and even new personal rights.


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Declaration of Independence (1776)

When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one

people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with

another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equalstation to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a

decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare

the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal,that they are endowed by their Creatorwith certain unalienable Rights,

that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness [].

And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the

protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives,

our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.


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Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen (1789)

The representatives of the French people, formed into aNational Assembly, considering that ignorance, neglect or scornof the rights of man to be the only causes of nationalmisfortunes and the corruption of governments, have resolvedto set out, in a solemn Declaration, the natural, unalienableand sacred rights of man[].


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Constitution of the Federative Republic of Brazil (1988)

PREAMBLE

We, the representatives of the Brazilian People, convened in theNational Constituent Assembly to institute a Democratic State, for thepurpose of ensuring the exercise of social and individual rights, liberty,

security, well-being, development, equality and justice as supreme valuesof a fraternal, pluralist and unprejudiced society, founded on socialharmony and committed, in the internal and international orders, to thepeaceful settlement of disputes, promulgate, under the protection ofGod, this Constitution of the Federative Republic of Brazil.


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Those ideas are completely anachronistic.

An alternative, the vision of Korsgaard:

The ethics of autonomy

is the only one consistent

with the metaphysics of

the modern world, andthe ethics of autonomy is

an ethics of obligation.

Christine Korsgaard Harvard University.


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Person, Autonomy and Action


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Mirandola: Dignity and Autonomy

The free and proudshaper of your own

being, fashion

yourself in the formyou may prefer.

Pico della Mirandola


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Dignity and Enhancement

"While Mirandola does not

distinguish between different

forms of dignity, it seems that he

is suggesting both that our

Human Dignity consists in our

capacity for self-shaping, andalso that we gain in Dignity as a

Quality through the exercise of

this capacity. Nick Bostrom Oxford University.


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Person as an agent (autonomy), with a physical

body, that aspires to the Good Life.

The person possesses a memory, conscience, is

capable of action, transformation, of provokingobjective changes in the World, in itself in its

subjectivityand in other persons.


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The way we manipulate bodies and values, and,somehow, the person implies infinite forms of (not) beinghuman.


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There are infinite forms of (not)being human.


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l(?) C l


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IV Fi l(?) C l i


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IV Fi l(?) C l i


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IV Fi l(?) C l i


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The main goal of Human Enhancement is to

increase autonomy.

Any change in the biology or psychology of a

person which increases the chances of leading a

good life in the relevant set of circumstances. [...] Itties enhancement to the value of well-being.

(Savulescu, Sandberg, Kahane)

IV Fi l(?) C l i


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Living the true autonomy implies the conscious self-apropriation of one's own body as means to a broader

concept of Life Project, which should include thenotion of a self-constructed dignity.

(STANCIOLI, Brunello; CARVALHO, Nara Pereira.

2011. Da Integridade Fsica ao Livre Uso do Corpo: Releiturade um Direito da Personalidade.)

IV Fi l(?) C l i


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Towards a Common Basis: Human

Rights and Human Enhancement


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Human

Enhancementas a HumanRight

Autonomy

HumanRights

TheGood Life

HumanEnhancement

IV Fi l(?) C l i


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The Person as a Possibility(Being Whatever you Want)

Live Long and Prosper

(if you want it).

human enhancement as basic right - atual

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