In To Relieve the Human Condition, Gerald McKenny starts his book with the following sentences:

In Book III of the Republic, while discussing the training for the guardians of his ideal city, Plato addresses the role of medicine in their formation. His underlying question is how the pursuit of health can be so managed that medicine serves rather than hinders or dominates our moral projects. This question in turn breaks down into several more specific questions: How much attention or vigilance should we devote to our bodies in the effort to optimize their capacities? How much control should we allow physicians to exercise over our bodies? What ends, individual and collective, should determine what counts as a sufficiently healthy body? What limits should we observe in our efforts to improve our bodily performance and remove causes of suffering (Plato, 403c-407a)? [1]

Those same questions need to be asked again in the debate concerning human enhancement. Should we, for example, use genes from other animals in order to improve our performances? Consider the following excerpt from Julian Savulescu in Human Enhancement:

It has been possible since about 1980s to transfer genes taken from one species into another. ANDi is a rhesus who has had a jellyfish gene incorporated into his DNA. This results in a unique fluorescent green glow. Alba is a genetically engineered rabbit created by French scientists for artist Eduardo Kac. She also has a fluorescent glow. These transgenic animals show that a gene from one species can be successfully transferred and activated in a completely different genome in a different species. There is no reason why genes from other species could not be transferred to human beings, creating transgenic humans. [2] (For more little green animals see http://timesonline.typepad.com/science/2009/05/the-sciencecentral-glowing-animals-gallery.html )

Savulescu continues, “Transgenesis could be used to introduce genes coding for superior physical abilities from other animals. For example, humans could have the hearing of dogs, the visual acuity of hawks, the night vision of owls, or even be able to navigate by sonar employed bats.” [3] It seems, therefore, that Plato’s question needs to be asked once again: “What limits should we observe in our efforts to improve our bodily performance and remove causes of suffering?” We may also consider that if we are able to do something, it does not mean that we should do it.

[1] Gerald P. McKenny, To Relieve the Human Condition, Bioethics, Technology, and the Body (Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1997).

[2] Savulescu, Julian and Nick Bostrom, ed. Human Enhancement (Oxford University Press, 2009),212.

[3] Ibid, 213.

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