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Human Enhancement, Biological Risks

Any new technology carries with it risks, some foreseen from the outset, some revealed in the course or aftermath of implementation. The class of technologies we call human enhancement is understood to include risks to the subject and is something society to some degree accepts. For example, the health consequences to athletes using performance-enhancing drugs have been a topic of concern, as human enhancement is often used for nontherapeutic applications.

Brain implants are currently used to transmit electrical signals for deep brain, cortical, vagus nerve, or spinal cord simulation in the treatment of Parkinson's disease, epilepsy, chronic pain, depression, and other ailments. The risks of brain implants include behavioral side effects such as compulsive behavior, confusion, and mood disorders. Sleep apnea is another known risk of vagus nerve stimulation, and because of the stimulation to the laryngeal nerves, there may be changes to the voice, throat pain, muscle spasms, and persistent coughs. Long term usage may reveal further complications, as may more widespread usage. The fact that misplaced implants used in deep brain stimulation can cause such a wide variety of neuropsychiatric effects may have implications for the risks of nanotech brain therapies and enhancements.

Gene therapy, as with any technique of introducing foreign material into human tissue, can trigger an immune system response. Furthermore, because viruses are often used as the carrier, this immune system response can be more severe, and there can be toxicological concerns; worse, the viral vector, once introduced, may resume its illness-causing properties. When performed incorrectly, by integrating the therapeutic DNA at the wrong point of the genome, a tumor can be induced in the patient.

Neurodiversity

Considering biological risk, often the risk to the patient is the only one considered, but there is growing concern about the risks to the rest of the population itself. On the subject of the ethics of human enhancement, a case can be made that the purchase and use of expensive designer genes by parents, and passed on genetically for generations, would create a true genetic difference between the rich and the poor. On the biological plane, the term neurodiversity, an intentional parallel, has come into use to advocate the diverse variation of neurological development among the human species.

There is a tendency to see the ideal human as the neurotypical one—the baseline of what society views as normal and unremarkable, in contrast to those on the autism spectrum. Though most common in the autism community, “neurotypical” contrasts just as well with bipolar, schizophrenic, dyslexic, dyspraxic, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)—all conditions that include patients, friends, and advocates who oppose treatment that seeks to eradicate the condition, in favor of a better understanding of the condition and a recognition that it is something that can be coped with.

Though originally focused on the individual, the use of the term neurodiversity as a cause indicates a concern, not just for the patient, but for the implications to society and the human race. If the genes for autism and schizophrenia, for example, were eliminated, it is unknown what the long-term consequences might be to the gene pool.

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