We Must Decide Who We Are to Determine Who We Become: Philosophical Pre-Requisites to Technological Self-Determination

Patient self-determination has become the bioethical watchword of Western healthcare. Technology has expanded autonomous control of one’s biological fate, but also raised new issues implicating basic theoretical pre-requisites for recognition of autonomy as a central human value (personal identity, definition of death, definitions of health and disease, therapy vs. enhancement, etc.) as well as contentious policy questions (shall we pursue life extension?, how shall we regulate reproductive or cosmetic interventions?, etc.). Rejection of many forms of bodily enhancement and modification is, literally, an article of faith in conservative religious circles; simultaneously, exploding interest in such technologies challenges traditional notions of “normal” human body types or functions. One or the other vision of human life must prevail. This presentation will review philosophical questions encountered as the drive for personal self-determination embraces ever more advanced technologies, and suggest what answers must be given to preserve pro-autonomy options within this evolving healthcare schema.

City College of New York

Kevin T. Keith is a bioethicist with a background in clinical ethics and bioethics education at Georgetown University Medical School and Mt. Sinai Schoolf of Medicine. He is currently an adjunct lecturer in philosophy at the City College of New York’s adult extension program. His particular interests include patient autonomy, the definition of healthcare and disease, and the role of biotechnology and body modification in determining normal human species functioning. He has written on life extension, medical futility, and the conflict between bioethics and conservative political/cultural activism.