Michael Sandel What's Wrong With Enhancement Analysis

Improved Essays
In 1996 scientist cloned the first mammal in history, Dolly the sheep. The birth of Dolly the sheep lead the way to significant ethical controversy. People began to question whether or not science had gone too far and if it was acceptable to test on living organisms in such a way. A large number of individuals focused on the potential unforeseen safety and health effects such advancement could cause. American political philosopher and Harvard University professor Michael J. Sandel discusses his concerns about scientific enhancement in and an essay titled “What’s Wrong with Enhancement.” In the essay, Sandel describes different types of enhancement such as sex selection and genetic engineering, all in which he addresses with the incredible notion of morality.
Michael Sandel (2002) begins by stating that he believes there are reasons that “go beyond safety, fairness, and embryos” (pg.1) when objecting enhancement and different forms of genetic engineering. There would still be an issue, even if there was a way to create a performance enhancing drug that safe and available to everyone without any disadvantages. The ones using the performance enhancing drugs can no longer take credit for their actions. An example would be an athlete using these drugs to play better, “the more the athlete relies on drugs…the less his performance represents his achievement” (Sandel, 2002, pg.2).What Sandel is saying is can be credible because even in the real world athletes who are caught using performance enhancers face a lot of repercussions. Their fan bases begin to dwindle and they lose all their prestige. An example would be cycling in the Olympics. So many athletes were caught “doping” or using performance enhancers that the sport itself is beginning to lose its popularity. This is the point that Sandel (2002) is trying to make, even if that the tools for enhancement are made equally available to everyone “something morally troubling persists” (pg. 1). It is reasonable to argue that naturally developing one’s talents is better than artificially enhancing them. By doing so, one can take credit for their actions. Based on the ideas presented in Sandel’s essay, his ethical standing can be correlated to the virtue approach.
…show more content…
In an essay titled “Thinking Ethically About Human Biotechnology” five different ethical approaches are discussed. The writing Doctor Margaret R. McLean (2000) states in her explanation of the virtue approach that “virtues are dispositions that facilitate acting in ways that develop human potential and human flourishing” (pg.4). The definition of virtue is “behavior showing high moral standards” (Merriam-Webster, 2016) which is exactly Michael Sandel’s takes into consideration the most when developing his opinions and ideas on enhancement. Nearly every topic of enhancement Sandel addresses is tied into what he feels is morally right. The virtue approach allows one to take the utilitarian, rights, justice and common good approaches into consideration. However, the Virtue approach also places an emphasis on morals and how they drive one to act. Just because a person acts morally doesn’t mean that they will always make the right decision. Some people have emotionally driven morals that can cause them to act on what makes them feel better rather than doing what is right. Sandel (2002) brings up the idea that people must acknowledge that “our talents and powers are not wholly out own doing, nor fully ours, despite the efforts we expend to develop and to exercise them” (pg.2). This means that one must realize that there are characteristics given to each individual that are not meant to be altered. Sandel believes that there is a danger in trying to enhance different qualities of people and other living things. He claims that there is a “deeper danger” in trying to “remake nature” (Sandel, 2002, pg. 2). An aspect of genetic engineering that these beliefs are often brought up in regards to, is the genetic modification of embryos. Parents having the ability to design their children how they feel is best, will change the parental love from accepting to transforming. Sandel fails to acknowledge that there are times when genetic engineering can be beneficial. Genetic engineering can be used to eradicate disease and other potential illness in children. It would not be fair for Sandel

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    Dollie the sheep was the first mammal to be cloned by an adult cell by using the process of nuclear transfer. This process started by a cell is placed in a de-nucleated egg, the two cells fuse and then develop into an embryo. Dollie was cloned at the Roslin Institute in 1997. The idea was developed from part of a research in producing the milk from farm animals.…

    • 262 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    In the article “Ethical Issues of Cloning” by Rita Putatunda explains about the problems of cloning. Copying the genes and making new reproductions of the human is equivalent to “playing God”. The successful cloning of Dolly (Sheep) in 1997 brings many tension upon society and furthers the possibility of human cloning. However, there is a high failure rate of cloning and it may alter the genes of the cloned animal/human. Putatunda questions that the cloning outcome might act as a unique individual or have to live like a genetic prisoner.…

    • 156 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    “At what point do children become artifacts designed to someone’s specifications rather than members of a family to be nurtured? (Hayes 245).” In “Genetically Modified Humans? No Thanks,” Richard Hayes argues against Ronald M. Green, a professor of Emeritus of Religion and of Ethics and Human Values at Dartmouth College, specifically responding to his essay about using genetic technology to change children’s DNA. Hayes, who holds a Ph.D. in Energy and Resource, which saluted the United States to ban human cloning worldwide, believes it would disrupt human nature and the human future.…

    • 961 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    One controversial topic that provokes debate is genetic modification. In the essay “Proposed Treatment to Fix Genetic Diseases Raises Ethical issues” the author Rob Stein explains the process of genetic engineering and suggests a solution. The government is debating if the should let scientists “make changes in some of the genetic material” in the egg so the baby will not have certain genes. The main goal is to “help women deliver healthy, normal children.” There are some risks with this process such as birth defects.…

    • 369 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In this enthralling, enlightening book, Ronald M. Green’s Babes by Design: The Ethics of Genetic Design explores the potential promise and threat in the innovation of genetic engineering. Babies by Design offers several elements of the complicated subject: it presents an eloquent description of the sophisticated technology and science, it clearly recaps the reasonable arguments for and against numerous exercises of biotechnology, and it relates the ideas of science fiction to that of the uncertain future. Green graduated Summa Cum Laude at Brown University, before receiving his Ph.D. in religious ethics from Harvard University in 1973. Green has written nine books and more than 170 articles on theoretical and applied ethics. This gives him…

    • 1004 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Walter Glannon explores several moral problems with genetic enhancement in his article “Genetic Enhancement,” published in Glannon’s book, From Genes and Future people: Philosophical Issues in Human Genetics (and later in Bioethics Principles, Issues, and Cases.) Glannon believes that “gene therapy is permissible if it is intended to ensure or restore normal functions, but it is morally illegitimate if it is aimed at enhancing functions beyond normal.” (577) Glannon, a professor of bioethics and philosophy at the University of Calgary, holds the Canada Research Chair in Biomedical Ethics and Ethical Theory at the University of Calgary in Alberta. He is well known for publishing 4 books and over 27 articles related to bioethics and philosophy.…

    • 508 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In a society wherein new advancements are discovered on a regular basis with regards to the scientific and biological fields, the analysis of certain developments is required to ensure the safety and morality of the procedure. In particular, however, the issue of the reproductive cloning of animals has been the cause of many debates. The case of Snuppy, a cloned dog, has sparked controversy and this paper will focus on that whilst proving that reproductive cloning of animals should not be deemed unethical. Snuppy – the first dog to ever be cloned! …

    • 959 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Public Voice Argument

    • 854 Words
    • 4 Pages

    The article “listening for the Public Voice” by Robert Cook-Deegan and Jane Maienchein discuses the many arguments, both for and against, surround human embryo gene mutation and experimentation. They then provide multiple examples from scientific history in which the practices had faced the same amount of scrutiny from the public, yet once people saw the rewards that could result from these practices, they allowed these practices to become “normal”. In the article “Listening for the Public Voice”, Robert Cook-Deegan and Jane Maienchein argue the public voice has more power than most people think, if it is used correctly. They do this through logical reasoning with specific examples in society where this has happened in order to encourage the public to stand strong in what they believe.…

    • 854 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Is it okay to allow parents to pick and choose how their child should look, as if they are in Build-a Bear Workshop? Scientists in today’s modern world have made immense progress in the field of genetic engineering. Many have rightfully chided scientists and this new development of errant technology due to the unethical consequences that genetic alteration of children brings. One of those consequences is that a society gap will arise from the manipulation of an embryo’s genes. Additionally, a child’s consent will be to be ignored if their genes are altered without consent.…

    • 613 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Summary/Response: “Human Reproductive Cloning: A Conflict of Liberties.” In this article “Human Reproductive Cloning: A Conflict of Liberties,” Joyce C. Havstad’s conflict is if cloning becomes safe and reliable, people should be able to have reproductive freedom. The author explained that promoters of human cloning know that it may lead to harmful characteristics. Instead of positively promoting human cloning they explain the causes and effects that could take place.…

    • 262 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    It begins with a sensibility that when we become excellent human beings, we develop and fulfil our most important capacities as human beings. Virtue ethics place emphasis on motives and development of morality rather than rules or actions people or society are supposed to follow. Virtue Ethics places emphasis on the moral character and goodness of the people than just primarily action and also concentrates on what we as a society ought to do and not just what kind of society we ought to be. The argument against Virtue Ethics are how to apply them to moral dilemmas and sometimes it is hard to identify the virtues, as they are no specific directions to aid in decision making or dilemmas, and sometimes people find themselves in situations where virtue ethics provide no answers in situations where decisions needs to be…

    • 1093 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    When the sheep Dolly was born, cloning turned from a Science Fiction to a reality humans have to deal with on so many levels. Cloning to bring back distinct animals, create a new breads and for humans cloning either to produce children for people who can’t have them, to avoid DNA related diseases, to produce organs for sick people who need them, to get a fresh new clone of a lost loved ones or even create super humans. All that has raised a lot of talk among the public. Since Day one, cloning has been tagged with playing the role of “GOD”, and when that happens, first questions rushed to all our minds are; how Ethical/ Unethical would that be? And how safe is it for all the parties involved?…

    • 479 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The use of animals in research is widely accepted, particularly within the scientific community. However, with the rise of new technologies and growing concern over animal welfare, the ethics of animal experimentation and the extent to which it is practiced has increasingly come into question. Although animal experimentation is regulated to prevent excessive suffering, opponents argue that these measures are insufficient. Proponents of animal research argue that knowledge gained from it and the various applications for it justify the unethical manner by which that knowledge is obtained. This argument neglects critical moral considerations rooted in deontology and utilitarianism which condemn the unethical use of animals for the advancement…

    • 1221 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Prison Ethics

    • 1297 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Virtue ethics, like its name suggests is about character virtues, otherwise known as the golden mean. “The golden mean represents a balance between extremes, i.e. vices. For example, courage is the middle between one extreme of deficiency (cowardness) and the other extreme of excess (recklessness). This doesn 't mean that the golden mean is the exact arithmetical middle between extremes, but that the middle depends on the situation. There is no universal middle that would apply to every situation (Golden Mean, 2007)”.…

    • 1297 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Reproductive Cloning With constant new developments in science, society is forced to react and adapt. Along with these new developments, citizens are left questioning the ethics behind the experiment. Almost one hundred thirty years ago, society was introduced to the idea of cloning. It was not until the year nineteen ninety-six when the idea became reality and the first cloned mammal was born, Dolly the sheep. She set the grounds for the next cloned mammals to come.…

    • 1416 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays

Related Topics