[extropy-chat] Anti-transhumanist op-ed: Is the world ready for a superboy - or a dogboy?

[Neil H.]

The Dallas Morning News has an anti-transhumanist op-ed by a senior fellow
at the Discovery Institute (a conservative Christian think-tank).

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/opinion/points/stories/DN-smith_13edi.ART.State.Edition1.2f25c31.html

Some quotes:

 Look out, America: The trajectory of science is coming into conflict with
venerable human values and even our self-definition as a species, raising
urgent ethical issues that will have to be answered before it is too late.
...

 The "sanctity/equality of life ethic" holds that all human beings have
equal moral worth, regardless of their abilities or capacities. This
objective standard is now threatened by "personhood theory," which holds
that rights only belong to "persons," a status earned by possessing minimal
cognitive capacities. If personhood theory supplants sanctity of life as the
governing ethic of society, it would open the door to harvesting organs from
people like Terri Schiavo or permitting biotechnologists to "farm" cloned
fetuses for use in drug testing or experiments in genetic engineering.
...
 If scientists can insert human DNA into animal embryos, then animal DNA
could just as easily be inserted into human embryos. Such experiments are
far from unthinkable. A social movement called "transhumanism" advocates the
creation of a "post human species," which would include using animal genes
in progeny to increase strength or make senses more acute.
...
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