Synopses & Reviews
When bioethicists debate the use of technologies like surgery and pharmacology to shape our selves, they are, ultimately, debating what it means for human beings to flourish. They are debating what makes animals like us truly happy, and whether the technologies at issue will bring us closer to or farther from such happiness.
The positions that participants adopt in debates regarding such ancient and fundamental questions are often polarized, and cannot help but be deeply personal. It is no wonder that the debates are sometimes acrimonious. How, then, should critics of and enthusiasts about technological self-transformation move forward?
Based on his experience at the oldest free-standing bioethics research institute in the world, Erik Parens proposes a habit of thinking, which he calls "binocular." As our brains integrate slightly different information from our two eyes to achieve depth of visual perception, we need to try to integrate greatly different insights on the two sides of the debates about technologically shaping our selves-if depth of intellectual understanding is what we are after. Binocular thinking lets us benefit from the insights that are visible from the stance of the enthusiast, who emphasizes that using technology to creatively transform our selves will make us happier, and to benefit from the insights that are visible from the stance of the critic, who emphasizes that learning to let our selves be will make us happier.
Parens observes that in debates as personal as these, we all-critics and enthusiasts alike-give reasons that we are partial to. In the throes of our passion to make our case, we exaggerate our insights and all-too-often fall into the conceptual traps that language sets for us. Foolishly, we make conceptual choices that no one who truly wanted understanding would accept: Are technologies value-free or value-laden? Are human beings by nature creators or creatures? Is disability a medical or a social phenomenon? Indeed, are we free or determined? Parens explains how participating in these debates for two decades helped him articulate the binocular habit of thinking that is better at benefiting from the insights in both poles of those binaries than was the habit of thinking he originally brought to the debates.
Finally, Parens celebrates that bioethics doesn't aspire only to deeper thinking, but also to better acting. He embraces not only the intellectual aspiration to think deeply about meaning questions that don't admit of final answers, but also the ethical demand to give clear answers to practical questions. To show how to respect both that aspiration and that demand, the book culminates in the description of a process of truly informed consent, in the context of one specific form of using technology to shape our selves: families making decisions about appearance normalizing surgeries for children with atypical bodies.
Review
"This is a wise and beautifully written book, which heralds the next wave in the bioethical analysis of the 'enhancement' uses of biomedical technologies and body-shaping surgeries. Parens' 'binocular' habit of thinking is just what the field needs now, and applies well beyond the specific issues addressed in this volume." --Eric Juengst, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
"In this cogent and lucidly written work, Parens provides a clear-headed and open-hearted approach to dealing with the vexing questions raised by enhancement technologies. The use of technologies by which humans try to shape their bodies and their destinies must be viewed, he persuades us, by using two lenses at once-an approach that achieves depth of intellectual vision by benefitting from the insights of critics and enthusiasts alike. In the end, we have to take a stance, but we come to it not through an agonistic 'win the argument' approach, but through a careful, empathetic understanding of both positions. This judicious approach is so desperately needed in a combative discipline like philosophy and its offspring bioethics and still more a world filled with conflict and strife--where too many think only through one self-righteous and dogmatic lens." --Eva Feder Kittay, Stony Brook University
"Chapter 6 alone is worth the price of the book. To look at enhancement technologies through Parens's binoculars is to bring them into lucid ethical focus. At the same time one sees a charming, gentle, and deeply knowledgeable man reaching out reconciling hands to fit together the insights from both critics and enthusiasts." --Hilde Lindemann, Michigan State University
"This is a book of remarkable clarity and balance; it illuminates important issues in bioethics with a substantial degree of care and respect for opposing perspectives in difficult, ongoing debates about the body, identity, disability and technology. Erik Parens' determined vision of a middle-ground in these debates challenges the 'knockers' and the 'boosters' to abandon their respective megaphones and discover more of what they might have in common. This is an essential book especially for those starting out in bioethics; would that there were more books that gave students a balanced perspective on 'hot' issues from the start." --Ilina Singh, Kings College London
Synopsis
When bioethicists debate the ethics of using technologies like surgery and pharmacology to shape our selves, they are debating what it means for human beings to flourish. They are debating what makes animals like us truly happy, and whether the technologies at issue will bring us closer to or farther from such happiness. The positions that participants adopt in debates regarding such ancient and fundamental questions are often polarized, and cannot help but be deeply personal.
It is no wonder that these debates are sometimes acrimonious. How can critics of and enthusiasts about technological self-transformation move forward in the midst of polarizing arguments?
Based on his experience as a scholar at The Hastings Center, the oldest free-standing bioethics research institute in the world, Erik Parens proposes a habit of thinking, which he calls "binocular." It is a habit which can promote understanding between and within camps that no longer listen to-or, to use Parens' metaphor, see-the truth of their opponents' insights.
Binocular thinking lets us benefit from the insights that are visible from the stance of the enthusiast, who emphasizes that using technology to creatively transform our selves will make us happier, and to benefit from the insights that are visible from the stance of the critic, who emphasizes that learning to let our selves be will make us happier.
Because these debates ultimately entail critics and enthusiasts giving justifications for their own ways of being in the world, they entail the exchange of more than just impartial reasons. In the throes of our passion to make our case, we exaggerate our insights and all-too-often fall into the conceptual traps that our languages constantly set for us: Are human beings by nature creators or creatures? Are technologies morally neutral or value-laden? Is disability a medical or a social phenomenon? Indeed, are we free or determined? Parens explains how participating in these debates helped him articulate a habit of thinking, which is better at benefiting from the insights embedded in both poles of those binaries than was the habit of thinking he brought to the debates when he first engaged in them.
Parens celebrates the fact that bioethics embraces two aspirations, which are in constant and fertile tension. The first aspiration is to face fundamental questions such as the one regarding the meaning of human flourishing-questions which to do not admit of crisp or final answers. The second is to help people face practical ethical questions-questions which demand such answers. The book culminates in a discussion of families negotiating both kinds of question, as they decide about appearance normalizing surgeries for children with atypical bodies.
About the Author
Erik Parens is a senior research scholar at The Hastings Center, a bioethics research institute in Garrison, NY. He is also an adjunct professor in the program in Science, Technology, and Society at Vassar College, and a Fellow of the Center for Neuroscience and Society at the University of Pennsylvania.
Table of Contents
Introduction
Chapter 1: Seeing from Somewhere in Particular
Chapter 2: Embracing Binocularity
Chapter 3: Creativity and Gratitude
Chapter 4: Technology as Value-Free and as Value-Laden
Chapter 5: Nobody's against True Enhancement
Chapter 6: Comprehending Persons as Subjects and as Objects
Chapter 7: Respecting Persons as Subjects and as Objects
Closing Thoughts