Engaging with the Future: The Ethical Questions and Dilemmas Julian Savulescu

1. Engaging with the Future: The Ethical Questions and DilemmasJulian Savulescu

2. Bioliberation or…Biothreat?

3. 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?

4. Points • Revolution in Biological and Neurosciences • Extent of human biological and psychological • inequality • Disability • Scope for human modification and “liberation” from biopsychological disadvantage/limitation • Biomedicine and science will extend beyond treatment and prevention of disease to human enhancement • Radical personal and social changes • New business and moral opportunities

5. 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?

6. 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

7. What Is Moral Inquiry? • “Reflective Equilibirum” • Principles and intuitions/norms • Rational agreement • Logical argument • Consistency • Racism/sexism • Aristotle and equality: treat like cases alike

8. 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

9. 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

10. Well-Being: Consistency • 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

11. 2nd Argument: Consistency and Practice • We accept environmental interventions – education, diet • Train children to be well behaved, co-operative and intelligent

12. 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

13. 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

16. 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

17. Typical life outcomes along the IQ continuum (Gottfredson) Military enlistment thresholds 10th 15th 30th X Odds of socioeconomic success increase

18. Estimated levels of usual functioning (Gottfredson)

19. Estimated levels of usual functioning (Gottfredson) US Dept of Education: People at levels 1-2 are below literacy level required to enjoy rights & fulfill responsibilities of citizenship

20. Item at NALS Level 1(Gottfredson) * 22% of US adults 78% • Literal match • One item • Little distracting info 80% probability of correctly answering items of this difficulty level *

21. Item at NALS Level 2(Gottfredson) 27% of US adults 22% 51% X • Simple inference • Little distracting information

22. NALS Level 2(Gottfredson) 27% of US adults 22% 51% • Match two pieces of info

23. Item at NALS Level 3(Gottfredson) 31% of US adults 49% 20% • Cycle through complex table • Irrelevant info

24. Item at NALS Level 4(Gottfredson) 80% 3% 17% of US adults • More elements to match • More inferences • More distracting information

25. Item at NALS Level 5 (Gottfredson) 3% of US adults 97% • Search through complex displays • Multiple distractors • Make high-level text-based inferences • Use specialized knowledge

26. Typical life outcomes along the IQ continuum (Gottfredson) NALS 1-2 Military enlistment thresholds 10th 15th 30th X

27. 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

28. 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% Gottfredson2002

29. Kanazawa 2006 Dickerson 2005 (+1 IQ = +8.2% GDP)

30. 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."

31. 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 • not only do the top performers do well professionally but they also add more per capita to the economy • even those in the top 1 per cent could benefit from further enhancement

32. Cartoon by Nicholson from "The Australian" newspaper: www.nicholsoncartoons.com.au

34. 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

38. Supermouse

44. 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