engaging with the future: the ethical questions and dilemmas julian savulescu

Exeter College Summer SchoolProfessor Julian Savulescu

University of Oxford

Engaging with the Future: The Ethical

Questions and Dilemmas

Julian Savulescu



Bioliberation or…Biothreat?



Ethical Questions

• Should parents be allowed to give their normal child ritalin if it increase school performance?

– Would you?

• Should parents give their child fish oil if it were shown to increase self-control?

• Should couples be able to test their embryos for:

– Intelligence?– Empathy?– Religiosity?

• What are your reasons?



Points1. Revolution in Biological and Neurosciences

2. Extent of human biological and psychological » inequality» Disability

3. Scope for human modification and “liberation” from biopsychological disadvantage/limitation

4. Biomedicine and science will extend beyond treatment and prevention of disease to human enhancement

5. Radical personal and social changes

6. New business and moral opportunities



What Is Practical Ethics?

What should I do?What is it right to do?What is there good reason to do?Is it right to clone human beings?Is genetic engineering wrong?Should we restrict CO2 emissions?



Answer

• Facts – about world, inc us

• Values – our norms, what is important to us – not science

• Disagreement about facts – science

• Disagreement about values – moral inquiry



What Is Moral Inquiry?

• “Reflective Equilibirum”• Principles and intuitions/norms• Rational agreement

– Logical argument– Consistency

• Racism/sexism

– Aristotle and equality: treat like cases alike



In the 1960s Walter Mischel conducted impulse control experiments where 4-year-old children were left in a room with one marshmallow, after being told that if they did not eat the marshmallow, they could later have two.

• Some children would eat it as soon as the researcher left.

• Others would use a variety of strategies to help control their behaviour and ignore the temptation of the single marshmallow.

Barriers to Well-Being: Self Control



– A decade later, they found that those who were better at delaying gratification had:

• more friends• better academic performance • more motivation to succeed.

– Whether the child had grabbed for the marshmallow had a much stronger bearing on their SAT scores than did their IQ

– Impulse control has also been linked to socioeconomic control and avoiding conflict with the law.

– Poor impulse control is a disability

Self-Control



Well-Being: Consistency1. Thought Experiment: Choosing not to enhance is

wrong

• Dietary neglect results in a child with a stunning intellect becoming normal

» Wrong

• Failure to institute some diet means a normal child fails to achieve a stunning intellect

» Equally wrong

• Substitute biological intervention for diet



2nd Argument: Consistency and Practice

We accept environmental interventions – education, diet

Train children to be well behaved, co-operative and intelligent



Consistency

Environmental manipulations affect biology

• Maternal care and stress• Hippocampal development• Cognitive, psychological and immune deficits later in life

“Early experience can actually modify protein-DNA interactions that regulate gene expression,” (changes in methylation of DNA) Michael Meaney



• No different to disease

• If we accept the treatment and prevention of disease, we should accept enhancement

• Goodness of health is what drives a moral obligation to treat or prevent disease

• Health is not what matters – health enables us to live; disease prevents us from doing what we want and what is good

– But how well our lives goes depends on our biology (in part)

– Drives a moral obligation to enhance

• Principle: Beneficence

• Value: Well-Being

Third Argument: Overriding Principle



Individual Effects

correlations between intelligence and income

having a low IQ:- increases the risks of a wide array of social and economic misfortunes, as well as impairing many everyday abilities - makes people vulnerable and reduces the range of jobs which they can select among, increasing competition within the same level of IQ.

Require an IQ of about 90 to complete a tax return; 120 to enter University



Typical life outcomes along the IQ continuum (Gottfredson)

Odds of socioeconomic success increase

X

Military enlistment thresholds10th 15th 30th



Estimated levels of usual functioning

(Gottfredson) NALS Level

% pop. Simulated Everyday Tasks

5 3%

• Use calculator to determine cost of carpet for a room• Use table of information to compare 2 credit cards

4 17% • Use eligibility pamphlet to calculate SSI benefits• Explain difference between 2 types of employee benefits

3 31% • Calculate miles per gallon from mileage record chart• Write brief letter explaining error on credit card bill

2 27% • Determine difference in price between 2 show tickets• Locate intersection on street map

1 22% •Total bank deposit entry• Locate expiration date on driver’s license



Estimated levels of usual functioning (Gottfredson) NALS Level

% pop. Simulated Everyday Tasks

5 3%

• Use calculator to determine cost of carpet for a room• Use table of information to compare 2 credit cards

4 17% • Use eligibility pamphlet to calculate SSI benefits• Explain difference between 2 types of employee benefits

3 31% • Calculate miles per gallon from mileage record chart• Write brief letter explaining error on credit card bill

2 27% • Determine difference in price between 2 show tickets• Locate intersection on street map

1 22% •Total bank deposit entry• Locate expiration date on driver’s license

US Dept of Education: People at levels 1-2 are below literacy level required to enjoy rights & fulfill responsibilities of citizenship



Item at NALS Level 1(Gottfredson)

• Literal match• One item• Little distracting

info

22% of US adults 78%

80% probability of correctly answering items of this difficulty level

*

*




X

• Simple inference• Little distracting information

27% of US adults 51%22%



NALS Level 2(Gottfredson)

27% of US adults

• Match two pieces of info

51%22%




31% of US adults

• Cycle through complex table

• Irrelevant info

20%49%




• More elements to match• More inferences • More distracting information

3%80%17% of US adults



Item at NALS Level 5 (Gottfredson)

97% 3% of US adults

• Search through complex displays

• Multiple distractors• Make high-level text-based

inferences• Use specialized knowledge



Typical life outcomes along the IQ continuum (Gottfredson)

X

Military enlistment thresholds10th 15th 30th

NALS1-2



Reduction of Losses

Lost keys UK £250 million/year – locksmiths, break-ins, insurance premiums, etc

Forgotten standing payment orders in UK: £400 million/month ($53/month person)

Sleepiness cause 15-20% road accidents (as well as work-related accidents, iatrogenic illness etc)

Higher IQ likely reduces accident risks, premature death



Gottfredson 2002

Individual Effects

Cognition important for good life

Environmental toxin models - lead

+1 IQ point = +1.763% income (Schwartz), +2.094/3.631% (Salkever, m/f)

Annual gain / IQ point US $55-65 billion 0.4-0.5% GDP

Effects on schooling, participation rate, social costs

Weiss 1998: 3 point IQ increase:Poverty rate -25%Males in jail -25%High school dropouts -28%Parentless children -20%Welfare recipiency -18%Out-of-wedlock births -15%



Kanazawa 2006

Dickerson 2005(+1 IQ = +8.2% GDP)



US Military

"The world contains approximately 4.2 billion people over the age of twenty. Even a small enhancement of cognitive capacity in these individuals would probably have an impact on the world economy rivaling that of the internet."



Improving the Top End

• Patent production - not a competitive endeavour but sign of real creativity and wealth production

• Among people with a SAT Reasoning Score in the top 1 per cent, – those in the top quartile produced about twice as

many patented ideas as those in the bottom quartile • corresponding to about 7.5 and 3.8 times the base rate of

the population respectively• Conclusions

1. not only do the top performers do well professionally but they also add more per capita to the economy

2. even those in the top 1 per cent could benefit from further enhancement



Cartoon by Nicholson from "The Australian" newspaper:

www.nicholsoncartoons.com.au

http://www.nicholsoncartoons.com.au/



Drug Effect + -Sugar

Stimulates, memory improvement, self-control improvement

Legal, very cheap, safe, well studied

Bad for teeth

Modafinil

Increased alertness, better executive function

Well studied, apparently safe and non-addictive

Risk of overexertion?

Caffeine

Increased alertness Legal, very cheap, safe, well studied

Quasi-addictive

Nicotine(enhancing cholinergic drugs)

Increased alertness, memory enhancement

Legal Biased studies? Addictive, smoking unhealthy

Choline Enhance memory in offspring pregnant rats

Easily accessible, legal, long-term effects

Unknown long-term side effects

Amphetamine

Increased alertness, memory enhancement, reorganisation

Well studied Not legal, addictive, preservation

Dopaminergic drugs (e.g. Ritalin)

Attention, working memory Recreational use

Beta blockers Calming, reduce impact of anxiety in traumatic memory

Ampakines Memory enhancement, increased alertness

Experimental, Seizure risk?

CREB-inhibitors Memory enhancement Experimental

Top 10 Cognitive Enhancers



Supermouse



The Doogie Mouse Better memory through overexpression of the receptor subunit NR2B

Color Vision Mice Adding human photopigment allows (at least females) to see new colors.

Methuselah MiceBy reducing growth hormone levels long-lived dwarf mice can be produced. The current record holder

survived 4 years 11 months and 3 weeks, while normal mice have a two year lifespan.

Monogamous VolesNormally polygamous voles can be turned monogamous (and more social) by changing the

vassopressin V1a receptor.

Regenerating MRL MiceThese mice regenerate holes punched in their ears as well as some injuries to heart muscle.

(accidental breeding rather than genetic engineering).

Schwarzenegger Mice and Belgian Blue Cows Increased muscle mass through myostatin knockout. Occurs naturally in

cows and humans.

Hard Working Monkeys Monkeys tend to slack off until they get close to a reward they have to work for. If injected with a

DNA construct that blocks the D2 receptor they work at an even rate.

Anticancer Mice Immune systems that kill cancer cells efficiently and can even help other mice through blood transfusions.

Antiobesity Mice Protected from obesity and diabetes by their lack the enzyme DGAT1. Their fat tissue can even reduce

obesity and glucose buildup in other mice if transplanted.

Marathon Mice: Overexpress PPARδ in their muscles- turn into slow twitch fibers that work well for long-distance running.

More endurance and increased resistance to obesity.

Top 10 Genetic Enhancements



Lust

Attraction

Attachment

Hypothalamus, sex hormones

Corticolimbic, dopamine

Oxytocin, vasopressin, CRH?



Implications for an Insurance Company?– Direct-to-Consumer Genetic Testing/Whole Genome Analysis

• Haemochromatosis – lower risk– Employee Screening and Analysis – pscyhopathy, personality

disorder– Employee productivity – IT, bioenhancement– Customer profiling/analysis – surveillance, internet data– Lifestyle evaluation (chip surveillance) and modification– Lie detection– Insurance and enhancement – side effect, background risk

reduction– Supercomputer risk profiling – metanalysis, risk of injury/event– Embryo selection and life-time risk prediction– Catastrophic biological or other man-made risks – epidemic,

geoengineering, nuclear, cyber …



Bioliberation vs Biothreat

Bioliberation

• Freedom to be the person you want to be

• Increased well-being• Economic Growth• New markets• Social Justice• Moral Improvement• Love and better human

relationships• Creation of meaning

Biothreat

• Human or economic catastrophe

• Reduced well-being• Reduced diversity• Inequality and discrimination• Abuse of power• Bioincarceration, control,

manipulation• Loss of solidarity, respect,

humility, responsibility• Loss of meaning

engaging with the future: the ethical questions and dilemmas julian savulescu

Documents

diet exeter college

socioeconomic control

impulse control experiments

poor impulse control

iq impulse control

normal child ritalin

human modification

human beings