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

[Dirk Bruere]

On 11/15/05, Neil H. <neuronexmachina at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> 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.
> ...
>

Sounds good to me.
I could do with eyesight comparable to a hawk and muscles as strong as a
gorilla.
Fortunately the 'sanctity of life' crap is a Western (read largely US)
obsession not shared by the likes of China.

Dirk
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