Enhancing Equality

Alberto Giubilini (Charles Sturt University), Francesca Minerva (University of Melbourne)

Title: Enhancing Equality
Abstract: Human enhancement is the improvement of certain human traits and capacities through the use of medicine and biotechnologies. Many scholars have expressed concerns about possible inequalities resulting from non-universal, or even non-widespread access to enhancement. We identify three main positions in the debate over enhancement and equality: 1) egalitarian arguments against enhancement; 2) a sufficientarian or prioritarian “limited defence” of the “therapy-enhancement” distinction; 3) a sufficientarian argument for human enhancement.  In this talk we examine the strengths and weaknesses of each of these positions, and we formulate a fourth proposal that we think better meets egalitarian requirements. We propose that if one cares about equality, then one has to support a policy which involves subsidizing enhancements for certain groups of people and prohibiting enhancements for other ones.