Genetic Enhancement and Moral Excellence

Abstract

One of the new topics in the discussion between the advocates and the opponents of the human enhancement is the problem of moral enhancement. In this article I want to answer the question whether it is possible to work out a compromise that would reconcile some versions of the moral enhancement project with the traditional vision of the individual and autonomous moral development. First, I present how the category of moral enhancement appeared in the discussion on human enhancement. Then, I present the transhumanist assumptions and arguments for biomedical enhancement of moral dispositions. In the third part of the article I analyze four problems related to the issue of moral excellence: the problem of the right to be imperfect, the problem of the justification of sacrifice, the problem of moral evaluation of an agent’s traits and the problem of the aims of moral enhancement and moral perfection.