Human enhancement can be defined as the intentional improvement of individuals_ capacities with the help of technical or biomedical interventions in or on the human body. Enhancement has become prominent in policy, ethics, and everyday life, like in the case of doping in sport or of stimulants used as study aids. Conceptual refinement and methodological development is needed for the social sciences and humanities to contribute to its responsible governance. This project addresses both dimensions, connecting the literature on enhancement with the scholarship on responsible science and innovation. This perspective emphasises the aligning of STI with societal goals, as in EU Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) approach.
The project applies a responsibility perspective to enhancement governance. To do so, it gathers an interdisciplinary group of social scientists and humanities scholars to achieve the following objectives:
1. organize a workshop on responsibility and human enhancement;
2. retool techno-moral scenarios method for exploring human enhancement governance;
3. start a longer-term research network on responsibility and enhancement.