Human beings have the moral obligation to make their species better, and make their lives and the lives of other people easier and longer. Up until the species can do something more than save lives, it is not enhancing its evolution. There is also the human ‘right to postpone death by stemming the flow of diseases that carry us to the grave.’ This is the crux of the book  Enhancing Evolution: The Ethical Case for Making Better People, written by John Harris, the Sir David Alliance Professor of Bioethics at Manchester University. He is a scientist so his arguments on moral duty deserve a serious look.

Another compelling thought from Harris: if we merely want to leave it to Mother Nature to decide our fate, then why are we always resisting her? Medicines are anti-nature because illness and death are part of nature’s course. Medicine is there to prevent harm, prolong life, and postpone death. To run against nature’s course, therefore, is to improve upon our evolution as a species.

Enhancements to life should be basically available to everyone, outside of the realm of survival of the fittest. While competitive advantage may be good for some, and painfully impossible for the availment of everyone, it is also a way not to enhance the entirety of the species. It is ethical and moral, therefore, for the members of the human species to try to lift up the conditions of the other members, thereby enhancing evolution.

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Via The Daily Galaxy