Does Amphetamine Enhance Your Health? On the Distinction between Health and “Health-like” Enhancements

Tengland, Per-Anders

doi:10.1093/jmp/jhv020

Cited by 4 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 34 publications

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“…Treating colorectal cancer or removing polyps that can evolve into colorectal cancer pre-empts disease, and thereby increases (the extension of) health (in terms of non-disease). However, it can be argued that no increase in functioning, ability, or well-being in a healthy individual, can count as health-enhancing (Tengland 2015), as it does not pre-empt disease. Any enhancement of a normal trait or ability is therefore to "reach beyond health" (Sandel 2004)…”

Section: Naturalistic Conceptions Of Healthmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Theories of health, relating health to wellbeing, e.g., in terms of abilities (Nordenfelt 2005) or capabilities (Venkatapuram 2013), grant the possibility of enhancing health in healthy individuals, not only in unhealthy ones, as wellbeing, can be enhanced beyond the absence of disease. Even more it can be argued that there is an obligation from health care and society "to enhance and support people's health" (Tengland 2015), as health is not only "a fundamental human right," but as "the attainment of the highest possible level of health is a most important world-wide social goal" (World Health Organization 1978). Therefore, HE hardly challenges hybrid conceptions of health.…”

Section: Hybrid Conceptions Of Healthmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Allow me to limit this analysis to one example that explicitly has investigated the relationship between HE and the concept of health, i.e., Per-Anders Tengland's article Does Amphetamine Enhance Your Health? On the Distinction between Health and "Health-like" Enhancements (Tengland 2015). Tengland's assessment illustrates a general point which appears relevant for other hybrid conceptions of health as well.…”

Section: Hybrid Conceptions Of Healthmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…To overcome this problem Tengland points to the distinction between health and "health-like" enhancements, and between "fundamental health" and "manifest health" and this leads him to argue that "every substance that increases basic ability and/or well-being is an enhancement of manifest health, but also to conclude that some of these substances at the same time damage fundamental health." (Tengland 2015). It is not enough that an enhancement simply increases ability, but it also has to contribute to the ability in the long run in order to enhance health.…”

Section: Hybrid Conceptions Of Healthmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…So as to exclude amphetamine and other types of enhancement from health, he argues that "an enhancement is health related when the substance, or aid, increases ability or well-being, is integrated into the body, and does not harm the individual's fundamental health." (Tengland 2015). Whether Tengland's qualification is sound or not is open for discussion.…”

Section: Hybrid Conceptions Of Healthmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Human Enhancement: Enhancing Health or Harnessing Happiness?

Hofmann

2018

Bioethical Inquiry

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Human enhancement (HE) is ontologically, epistemologically, and ethically challenging and has stirred a wide range of scholarly and public debates. This article focuses on some conceptual issues with HE that have important ethical implications. In particular it scrutinizes how the concept human enhancement relates to and challenges the concept of health. In order to do so, it addresses three specific questions: Q1.What do conceptions of HE say about health? Q2. Does HE challenge traditional conceptions of health? Q3.Do concepts of health set limits to HE? Addressing Q1 reveals that HE tends to frame and form our conception of health. Thereby it challenges traditional conceptions of health (Q2). Accordingly, health does not provide strong sources for setting limits to HE (Q3). On the contrary HE seems to define and expand the concept of health. Common to the concepts of HE and health is that both depend on vague value concepts, such as happiness, wellbeing, or goodness. There seems to be a tendency in the HE literature to define the goal of human life in terms of what is bigger, stronger, faster, more intelligent, and more resilient. However, this is confusing "goodness" with "more" and quality with quantity. Until HE more appropriately defines happiness, HE will fail to provide a relevant compass for improving the life of human beings. On the contrary, if we let simplified conceptions of "enhancement" come to define goodness or health, we may do more bad than good. Until doing so, we may well learn from Tithonus, listen to Douglas Adams' Wowbagger, and pay attention to Virginia Woolf's Orlando.

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Section: Naturalistic Conceptions Of Healthmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Hybrid Conceptions Of Healthmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Hybrid Conceptions Of Healthmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Hybrid Conceptions Of Healthmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Hybrid Conceptions Of Healthmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Human Enhancement: Enhancing Health or Harnessing Happiness?

Hofmann

2018

Bioethical Inquiry

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Health and capabilities: a conceptual clarification

Tengland

2019

Med Health Care and Philos

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There are great health disparities in the world today, both between countries and within them. This problem might be seen as related to the access to various kinds of capabilities. It is not fully clear, however, what the exact relation is between health and capabilities. Neither Amartya Sen nor Martha Nussbaum has explicitly formulated a theory of health to go with their theories of capabilities. This paper attempts to present a clarification of the conceptual relation between health and capabilities. Health, it is argued, should be seen as a holistic multi-dimensional phenomenon, made up of basic abilities and subjective well-being, and of fundamental states and processes. Using this theory, the paper shows how health is related to Nussbaum's ten capabilities. It is argued that health, in the senses described, is a necessary part of all ten capabilities. Moreover, some of the capabilities on Nussbaum's list, such as thinking and imagining, and practical reasoning, refer to health. Finally, it is shown that even though health is part of all capabilities, health cannot itself primarily be seen as a capability. An acceptable degree of health is required as a functioning for any theory of human flourishing to be reasonable.

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Medicine, Morality, and Mortality: The Challenges of Moral Diversity

Cherry

2015

JMPHIL

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This issue of The Journal of Medicine and Philosophy assesses the deep and abiding tensions that exist among the competing epistemic perspectives that bear on medicine and morality. Concepts of health and disease, as well as the theoretical framing of medical ethics and health care policy, intersect with an overlapping set of culturally situated communities (scientific, political, moral, and religious), striving to understand and manipulate the world in ways that each finds explanatory, appropriate, or otherwise befitting. The articles explore the complexities of framing public health care policy to guide bioethical decision making in the face of the plurality of ethical viewpoints and moral rationalities--including health enhancing supplements, continuous sedation until death, medical futility, the protection of vulnerable populations, and competing professional obligations.

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Does Amphetamine Enhance Your Health? On the Distinction between Health and “Health-like” Enhancements

Cited by 4 publications

References 34 publications

Human Enhancement: Enhancing Health or Harnessing Happiness?

Human Enhancement: Enhancing Health or Harnessing Happiness?

Health and capabilities: a conceptual clarification

Medicine, Morality, and Mortality: The Challenges of Moral Diversity

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