In the inaugural Snyder Presidential Lecture, chair of the President Bush's Council on Bioethics Leon Kass delivered a cerebral analysis of current biotechnology trends that lived up to University President Larry Bacow's introductory comment that Kass' views "defy convention."
According to Kass, we are in the midst of "the golden age of biomedical science technology," in which medicine and science can be used to prolong or "undermine the human life."
Kass discussed the alteration of human capacity and ability, the enhancement of the soul and mind, and the prolongation of the life cycle during his speech, titled "Ageless Bodies, Happier Souls: Biotechnology and the Pursuit of Happiness."
"Biotechnology processes can be used to pursue happiness but can cause public anxiety," said Kass, a fellow at the conservative American Enterprise Institute
Such tinkering poses questions related to safety, health, equality and liberty, Kass said, and the search for the "super human" may cause us to become dehumanized.
Humans have a tendency to become overachievers - we want to break all the limitations that nature imposes on us, Kass said. "It is mostly the gifted that resent their limitations," such as age, disability, and disease, he said.
But by trying to use biotechnology to eliminate our boundaries as humans, we give up on working with our limitations and striving in our strengths. Instead, we seek a uniformity that complies with the wishful image we have of ourselves, leading to what Kass called the "homogenization of society."
"There is a diminishing of human excellence" because we use drugs that enhance memories or muscles instead of overcoming obstacles, he said. Humans crossed a line when they started using biotechnology for self-improvement rather than therapy, which has the potential to alter social norms. Now, Kass said, "We make ourselves after our own fantasy."
To illustrate his point, Kass said that increasing the height of enough short people would raise humans' average height, creating an artificially achieved social norm rather than one "bestowed by nature."
The misuse of biotechnology not undermines our gift of equality, but it also leads to a "misallocation of limited resources," Kass said. He gave as an example a particularly alarming disparity in the allocation of health funds: this year alone, $7.7 billion was spent on cosmetic surgery, 10 times the amount spent on research for curing malaria.
If biotechnology continues to be used to create super-human health, Kass warned, it could lead to the creation of "impermeable elite castes" that have been engineered nearly to perfection.
The Snyder Presidential Lecture Series is an annual event beginning this year that brings controversial speakers to campus. The series was made possible by a gift of Richard E. Snyder (LA '55), former chairman and CEO of Simon & Schuster.
