Regulating Human Biological Enhancements: Questionable Justifications and International Complications

Ethical and social issues involved in human biological enhancements have been increasingly controversial, whether in the form of steroids in sports, of genetic selection for better children, or of study pills for cognitive enhancement. This article begins with examples of controversial human biological enhancements and a review of the arguments against such enhancements. Next, it intensively examines whether human biological enhancements are meaningfully different from other kinds of human enhancement. Then it analyzes ways in which human cultural diversity and splintered political sovereignty cut against effective curbs on such enhancements.

The article concludes that human biological enhancements are not inherently different from other forms of enhancing technologies and that regulation of enhancement technologies remains a challenge.