From Utopia to Science: Challenges of Personalised Genomics Information for Health Management and Health Enhancement

Zwart, Hub

doi:10.1007/s12376-009-0013-9

Cited by 12 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 6 publications

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“…It is by shaping nature we form ourselves: our human nature. These thoughts may also be connected to conceptions of nature as something to overcome or to a duty to self-civilize with links back to Erasmus and Plato [ 29 ]. Or in a Marxian remolding of nature and man into a new social man [ 30 ].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Limits to human enhancement: nature, disease, therapy or betterment?

Hofmann

2017

BMC Med Ethics

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BackgroundNew technologies facilitate the enhancement of a wide range of human dispositions, capacities, or abilities. While it is argued that we need to set limits to human enhancement, it is unclear where we should find resources to set such limits.DiscussionTraditional routes for setting limits, such as referring to nature, the therapy-enhancement distinction, and the health-disease distinction, turn out to have some shortcomings. However, upon closer scrutiny the concept of enhancement is based on vague conceptions of what is to be enhanced. Explaining why it is better to become older, stronger, and more intelligent presupposes a clear conception of goodness, which is seldom provided. In particular, the qualitative better is frequently confused with the quantitative more. We may therefore not need “external” measures for setting its limits – they are available in the concept of enhancement itself.SummaryWhile there may be shortcomings in traditional sources of limit setting to human enhancement, such as nature, therapy, and disease, such approaches may not be necessary. The specification-of-betterment problem inherent in the conception of human enhancement itself provides means to restrict its unwarranted proliferation. We only need to demand clear, sustainable, obtainable goals for enhancement that are based on evidence, and not on lofty speculations, hypes, analogies, or weak associations. Human enhancements that specify what will become better, and provide adequate evidence, are good and should be pursued. Others should not be accepted.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Limits to human enhancement: nature, disease, therapy or betterment?

Hofmann

2017

BMC Med Ethics

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“…Looking at the field of the HGM and on the best way ''to consider both how genes are perceived in the real world and what is actually known about their function'' (Clayton 2003: 563), or ''to enlarge and foster public engagement'' (Zwart 2009: 542), we suggest that an epistemological approach can be initiated to uncover the psychological determinants of individual behaviours in the field of nutrition, which might be influenced by the metaphors associated with the HGM. With this in mind, we would especially like to highlight (1) how HGM metaphors can be considered as a way to simplify the translation of healthcare issues related to nutrition, and (2) the impact of individual mental representations of the HGM and related metaphors on food choice.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Gut Health in the era of the Human Gut Microbiota: from metaphor to biovalue

Baty

Mougin

Dekeuwer

et al. 2014

Med Health Care and Philos

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The human intestinal ecosystem, previously called the gut microflora is now known as the Human Gut Microbiota (HGM). Microbiome research has emphasized the potential role of this ecosystem in human homeostasis, offering unexpected opportunities in therapeutics, far beyond digestive diseases. It has also highlighted ethical, social and commercial concerns related to the gut microbiota. As diet factors are accepted to be the major regulator of the gut microbiota, the modulation of its composition, either by antibiotics or by food intake, should be regarded as a fascinating tool for improving the human health. Scientists, the food industry, consumers and policymakers alike are involved in this new field of nutrition. Defining how knowledge about the HGM is being translated into public perception has never been addressed before. This raises the question of metaphors associated with the HGM, and how they could be used to improve public understanding, and to influence individual decision-making on healthcare policy. This article suggests that a meeting of stakeholders from the social sciences, basic research and the food industry, taking an epistemological approach to the HGM, is needed to foster close, innovative partnerships that will help shape public perception and enable novel behavioural interventions that would benefit public health.

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“…This life-style was disrupted, however, by the onset of the Industrial Revolution in modern Europe (the second moment), as documented by Marx in Capital ( 1867 /1979). Two revolutions, the Neolithic and the Industrial one, put the CHP between parentheses as it were (Zwart 2009a ).…”

Section: From Common Human Pattern To Glmentioning

confidence: 99%

Emerging viral threats and the simultaneity of the non-simultaneous: zooming out in times of Corona

Zwart

2020

Med Health Care and Philos

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This paper addresses global bioethical challenges entailed in emerging viral diseases, focussing on their socio-cultural dimension and seeing them as symptomatic of the current era of globalisation. Emerging viral threats exemplify the extent to which humans evolved into a global species, with a pervasive and irreversible impact on the planetary ecosystem. To effectively address these disruptive threats, an attitude of preparedness seems called for, not only on the viroscientific, but also on bioethical, regulatory and governance levels. This paper analyses the global bioethical challenges of emerging viral threats from a dialectical materialist (Marxist) perspective, focussing on three collisions: (1) the collision of expanding networks of globalisation with local husbandry practices; (2) the collision of global networks of mobility with disrupted ecosystems; and (3) the collision of viroscience as a globalised research field with existing regulatory frameworks. These collisions emerge in a force field defined by the simultaneity of the non-simultaneous. Evidence-based health policies invoke discontent as they reflect the normative logic of a globalised knowledge regime. The development of a global bioethics or macro-ethics requires us to envision these collisions not primarily as issues of benefits and risks, but first and foremost as normative tensions closely entangled with broader socio-economic and socio-cultural developments.

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From Utopia to Science: Challenges of Personalised Genomics Information for Health Management and Health Enhancement

Cited by 12 publications

References 6 publications

Limits to human enhancement: nature, disease, therapy or betterment?

Limits to human enhancement: nature, disease, therapy or betterment?

Gut Health in the era of the Human Gut Microbiota: from metaphor to biovalue

Emerging viral threats and the simultaneity of the non-simultaneous: zooming out in times of Corona

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