3,302 research outputs found
On the moral equality of artificial agents
No full textArtificial agents such as robots are performing increasingly significant ethical roles in society. As a result, there is a growing literature regarding their moral status with many suggesting it is justified to regard manufactured entities as having intrinsic moral worth. However, the question of whether artificial agents could have the high degree of moral status that is attributed to human persons has largely been neglected. To address this question, the author developed a respect-based account of the ethical criteria for the moral status of persons. From this account, the paper employs an empirical test that must be passed in order for artificial agents to be considered alongside persons as having the corresponding rights and duties
Deprivation and the See-saw of Death
No full textEpicurus argued that death can be neither good nor bad because it involves
neither pleasure nor pain. This paper focuses on the deprivation account as a response to this Hedonist Argument. Proponents of the deprivation account hold that Epicurus’s argument fails even if death involves no painful or pleasurable experiences and even if the hedonist ethical system, which holds that pleasure and pain are all that matter ethically, is accepted. I discuss four objections that have been raised against the deprivation account and argue that this response to Epicurus’s argument is successful once it has been sufficiently clarified
C. Joan Coggin, MD, and Ellsworth Wareham, MD
No full textC. [Charlotte] Joan Coggin, MD, and Ellsworth Wareham, MD, both of the the Loma Linda University Overseas Heart Surgery Team, are welcomed at the airport.20.5 x 25 c
Substantial life extension and quality of life
No full textCaloric restriction mimetics (CRMs) are emerging biotechnologies that promise to substantially enhance human lifespan. CRMs like resveratrol, metformin and rapamycin have been extensively tested in animals and have undergone clinical trials in humans, with positive indications for extended lifespan. This raises important questions for individuals and society: Is it really better to have a longer life? Would life-extending biotechnologies contribute to social problems like overpopulation? Will CRMs increase the longevity gap between haves and havenots? Worryingly, many of these concerns are neglected, both in individual choices and in social policy. The imminent availability of interventions that substantially increase lifespan creates an urgent need for informed individual and policy decisions. As a step in this direction I focus on whether life extension by CRMs would make a person's life better. One of the greatest fears in this regard is that lifespan augmenting technologies would result in a prolonged old age, and an extended period spent in intolerably poor health. On the basis of empirical studies, I claim that CRMs will not result in worse health than is normally the case in old age. However, since they slow down the ageing process they will extend the period in which one is more susceptible to the diseases of old age. Though preferable to substantially worse health, prolonged old age may seem undesirable to some. I make the case that CRMs would most likely improve one's quality of life. This is because they would add to life's value by increasing the number of years spent in good health. Moreover, I argue that even years spent in worse health, above a certain level, can contribute to the goodness of life. These considerations mean that this emerging biotechnology is likely to increase both the quantity and quality of life, and should provide part of the basis for informed decisions about the individual consequences of extending lifespan using CRMs
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