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Dialogues@RU is published
annually
by the
Writing Program at
Rutgers, The State
University of New Jersey
Volume 4
Fall 2005
Genetic Enhancement: Distinctions And Regulation - Page 1
Virginia Mensah
Genetic enhancement can be defined as bringing the attributes of individuals above that which is species-typical, a manipulation that can be accomplished through somatic or germ-line means. Although not presently an active technology in medicine, genetic enhancement has the potential to shape future society by allowing directed improvements in future people and their progeny. As a result, some individuals advocate abandoning research into genetic enhancement because of the potential for social problems through the development of a technology that is both obviously beneficial and subtly harmful ( Fukuyama 2). Benefits include the ability to identify and treat individuals at risk for serious diseases, while harms include distortions in social or political structure. This polarized view, however, which postulates strictly positive and negative uses of enhancement, ignores the often-vague distinction between enhancements and treatments such as vaccinations. Additionally, the knowledge and power relations that co-exist alongside the fear of self-serving uses of enhancement create and perpetuate the negative connotations of genetic enhancement. In truth, though, the lenses of Francis Fukuyama's "Biotechnology and the Threat of a Posthuman Future" and Deborah Lupton' s "Theoretical Perspectives on Medicine and Society" reveal that the possibility of genetic enhancement itself is not innately good or bad, but rather it is the potential social applications that mar the science. Therefore, enhancement techniques should be monitored to ensure that the technology is not used for self-serving purposes, but instead is employed only for the treatment of disease; moreover, the initial power to do so rests in the hands of the medical and genetics community where regulation should involve use of the doctor-patient relationship to restrict access. Ultimately, genetic enhancement is a complex issue that requires careful reflection, especially considering the often unclear distinction between treatment and enhancement.
Despite individual viewpoints on the issue of enhancement, there is a general agreement that the treatment versus enhancement distinction depends on the field of medicine and its definition of disease. For individuals like Walter Glannon, author of Genes and Future People: Philosophical Issues in Human Genetics and a staunch opponent of genetic enhancement, the difference between enhancement and therapy is clear and definite: "Gene therapy . . . is an intervention aimed at treating disease and restoring physical and mental functions and capacities to an adequate baseline" while genetic enhancement "is an intervention aimed at improving functions and capacities that are already adequate" (94). Based on these definitions of treatment (i.e., gene therapy) and enhancement, the use of genetic techniques to augment otherwise normal functioning falls outside the bounds of medicine, which is involved in "maintaining or restoring mental and physical functions at or to normal levels" (94). These black-and-white definitions reinforce a polarized disparity of good and bad uses of biotechnology - with treatment as "good" and enhancement as "bad." Therefore, as Fukuyama observes, making use of "institutions that can discriminate between good and bad uses of biotechnology and that can effectively enforce these rules both nationally and internationally" satisfies regulatory requirements (3). However, the definitions and distinctions fall apart when the role of medicine goes beyond maintenance and norms and enters prevention. Juengst, in his article "Can Prevention be Distinguished from Enhancement in Genetic Medicine," also acknowledges this and recognizes that the treatment and enhancement distinction "dissolves in the case of using human gene transfer techniques to prevent disease when such interventions involve the enhancement of the body' s health maintenance capacities" (126). Thus, the difference fades in certain instances where genetic technology enhances a body's functioning in order to protect against or prevent the occurrence of disease.