Engineering For and Against Disability: A Phenomenological Critique

Abstract: Some prominent advocates of human enhancement, like Jonathan Glover and Julian Savulescu, rely on a naturalistic account of "normal" human function when arguing that we should use biotechnology to eliminate future instances of disability. I show that these advocates' concept of disability, and the normative arguments informed by it in books like Choosing Children (Oxford UP, 2006) and Unfit for the Future (Oxford UP, 2012), fail to incorporate the phenomenological dimension of embodiment and that this dimension should be included in any account of disability and human flourishing. Such inclusion, however, requires us to consider seriously the counterintuitive view that racial minorities are constitutionally disabled in racist societies.