Morphological freedom

Morphological freedom refers to a proposed civil right of a person to either maintain or modify their own body, on their own terms, through informed, consensual recourse to, or refusal of, available therapeutic or enabling medical technology.[1]

The term may have been coined by transhumanist Max More in his 1993 article, Technological Self-Transformation: Expanding Personal Extropy, where he defined it as "the ability to alter bodily form at will through technologies such as surgery, genetic engineering, nanotechnology, uploading". The term was later used by science debater Anders Sandberg as "an extension of one’s right to one’s body, not just self-ownership but also the right to modify oneself according to one’s desires."[2]

Politics

According to technocritic Dale Carrico, the politics of morphological freedom imply a commitment to the value, standing, and social legibility of the widest possible variety of desired morphologies and lifestyles. More specifically, morphological freedom is an expression of liberal pluralism, secularism, progressive cosmopolitanism, and posthumanist multiculturalisms applied to the ongoing and upcoming transformation of the understanding of medical practice from one of conventional therapy to one of consensual self-determination, via genetic, prosthetic, and cognitive modification.

References

  1. ↑ Bostrom, N. (2005). "In Defense of Posthuman Dignity". Bioethics 19 (3): 202–214. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8519.2005.00437.x. PMID 16167401.
  2. ↑ Bradshaw, H. G.; Ter Meulen, R. (2010). "A Transhumanist Fault Line Around Disability: Morphological Freedom and the Obligation to Enhance". Journal of Medicine and Philosophy 35 (6): 670–684. doi:10.1093/jmp/jhq048. PMID 21076073.

External links

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