Week Five

There is no doubt after reading the first two chapters of John Harris’s Enhancing Evolution, that he is preaching to the choir as far as I’m concerned. In the first chapter Harris lays before the reader several questions which contextualize his ambitions for writing the book. He lays out his agenda sequentially: the first three chapters to argue that enhancement is a moral and political prerogative, chapters 4, 5, and 6 deal with life extension, reproductive and disability applications respectively, 7 and 8 analyse the work of Sandel, Kass, and Habermas, 9 on cosmetic enhancements, and the last two on the assessing the future for research. Harris identifies selections from the philosophy of Bertrand Russel as being illuminative to the issues broached by the question of the humanity in human enhancement. In chapter two Harris briefly illustrates several arguments by reference to five contemporary and speculative examples of enhancements. These are: chemical versus mechanical enhancement, disease and vaccination, genetic enhancement, chemical enhancement, and life extension.