Stepping Stones for a Legal Framework for Human Enhancement. A Path That Is More Important Than its Destination

Abstract

Does it make sense to strive for an overarching legal framework for human enhancement technologies (HETs)? In this article, we argue that it does due to the number and variety of forms and applications of human enhancement which are expected to boost amongst others under the influence of AI. However, already in an early stage of our explorative argument, we will conclude that we probably will never be able to attain such a complete framework. As it will be shown, it is the corollary findings of such an attempt that make it extremely useful from a philosophical, legal, as well as policy/lawmaker's perspective since they should enable us to see lacunae in the existing legislation and identify possibly conflicting overlaps.

Keywords: Human enhancement, ethics, legal framework