The US National Science Foundation published a report on ethical considerations over using technology to enhance human capabilities beyond normal functioning. Read the report here.Corrective eyeglasses, for instance, would be considered therapy rather than en-hancement, since they serve to bring your vision back to normal; but strapping on a pair of night-vision binoculars would count as hu-man enhancement, because they give you sight beyond the range of any unassisted hu-man vision. As another example, using stero-ids to help muscular dystrophy patients regain lost strength is a case of therapy; but steroid use by otherwise-healthy athletes would give them new strength beyond what humans typ-ically have (thereby enabling them to set new performance records in sports). And growing or implanting webbing between one’s fingers and toes to enable better swimming changes the structure and function of those body parts, counting then as a case of human en-hancement and not therapy.
(Thanks to C3C Dan Pickett for forwarding)
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