ABSTRACT

Human enhancement is at the same time an old and a new practice. It includes age-old habits such as consuming coffee or alcohol, but the popular understanding of the term is more closely related to practices such as new reproductive techniques, the development of prosthetics or the professional consumption of psychostimulants. A lot of new technologies involve applications for enhancing human body or human mind. In this light, human enhancement seems to be a new phenomenon, deeply rooted in technology. Moreover, the words and concepts surrounding these practices have not yet been clearly defined and the accompanying social, academic and political debates are far from being closed but are instead multiplying.