Human Enhancement

technology. The Human Enhancement quest thus Justin Tomkins is the Curate of represents a wider ideological drive to take our future St Mary’s Church, Longfleet, into our own hands and to bring all aspects of the Poole. He is married with two physical world under our control and domination, young children and he trained even at the cost of our own human identity. Whether for ordination at Trinity or not we wish to affirm certain aspects of the quest College, Bristol. He has a PhD in practice, core facets of the underlying visions in Chemistry from Cambridge, challenge the Christian belief that our ultimate hope exploring the use of DNA lies in divine gift rather than human accomplishment. as a molecular scaffold; and Human Enhancement reveals a faith in science, an MPhil in Theology, researching a theological medicine and technology to provide solutions for all engagement with Human Enhancement. of life’s challenges. It raises important questions about the status of the human body, limits and future hope. Further information Is the human body a flawed prototype in need of www.cis.org.uk – Christians in Science improvement or it is a work of art in which beauty and function have been perfectly designed? Are human Human Suggested reading limitations, such as lifespan, obstacles to be overcome Tomkins, J. M., Better People or Enhanced Humans?: or gifts to be embraced? Is future hope located in Enhancement What it might mean to be fully alive in the context of increased control within this life, or does it lie beyond Human Enhancement, Sunnyside Books, 2013 death in the form of resurrection bodies? There may How far should we improve the be no easy answers to these and related questions, yet Garreau, J., Radical Evolution: The promise and perils of unless the Church engages with this rapidly growing human body? enhancing our minds, our bodies – and what it means to debate, it will be difficult for society to take decisions be human, Broadway, 2005. which are informed by Christian tradition and insight. Sandel, M. J., The Case against Perfection: Ethics in the age of genetic engineering, Belknap Press, 2007.

De Grey, A., Ending Aging: The rejuvenation breakthroughs Healing is distinct from that could reverse human aging in our lifetime, St Martin’s enhancement Press, 2007

Is it a r to care for the environment?

www.cis.org.uk Thinking about… formed a central aspect to Jesus’ ministry on earth before Whilst it is possible to debate the dividing line his death and resurrection, and during the last two between healing and enhancement, future visions of Human thousand years it has been a key priority in the work of the enhancement possibilities lie far beyond healing. These church, both through medicine and prayer. Yet healing is include the quest to radically extend the human life Enhancement distinct from enhancement. Healing involves the return span, to merge the human body with technology, and to health and well-being. Human Enhancement, by to genetically engineer one’s child so that they excel Dr Justin Tomkins contrast, involves attempting to move beyond health and in a particular career or lifestyle. Visionaries Aubrey wonder how you feel about your body? We are to reach for what is superhuman. de Grey, Ray Kurzweil different shapes and ages, we have different colour One contemporary project which and Lee Silver have hair and skin, yet each of us has in common the Do we might be understood as a quest for explored these three areas same human reality of facing aging and death. Or place too enhancement is the use of drugs such of Human Enhancement so, at least, our ancestors accepted. Today it appears that I much faith as Ritalin and Modafinil by ambitious respectively. these very human realities are no longer out of reach of in science, university students; drugs which are Aubrey de Grey calls for a human aspirations for dominance and control. prescribed for children who have war on ageing and believes Human Enhancement refers to the quest to try to enhance medicine difficulty in concentrating are being that there are those alive the human body. Built as it is upon the vision that it is and used by very able students in order today who will live to possible to improve upon the human body, it involves technology? to improve upon their natural high be one thousand years old. There are an increasing both dreams and the actions which grow out of such levels of concentration. A second existing enhancement number of people who share his vision. Ray Kurzweil aspirations. Contemporary project involves the use of prosthetic limbs not simply to predicts that by the mid 2040’s a singularity will occur, science, medicine and Is it possible to replace the use of arms and legs but to go beyond what beyond which it will be impossible to distinguish technology may only be at the ‘improve’ the natural limbs can achieve. The implantation of a magnet people from machines, such will be the overlap early stages of empowering human body? within one’s finger, or electrodes within one’s arm, in between the two. He is convinced that he himself will such a quest but that does not order to produce new sensations and control, represents achieve immortality though the merging of his own prevent the dreams from being profoundly ambitious. a third such enhancement project. These projects raise body with technology. No Human attempts to fight sickness and disease reach back interesting issues yet they are incredibly tame in relation less a technological expert What is our future to the earliest points within human history. Healing to those envisioned for the future. than Bill Gates describes hope for the Kurzweil as the person human body? best able to predict the future of artificial intelligence. Lee Silver describes a genetically engineered future in which parents will choose the genetic characteristics of their children so as to enable them to excel as footballers, gymnasts, or The Human Enhancement quest represents in another field. Those who advocate Human Enhancement may refer a wider drive to take our future into our to themselves as transhumanists. Transhumanists are those who seek to become posthuman; that is, beings own hands with vastly greater capacities than those of current humans, through the use of science, medicine and