Biotechnologies - ranging from genetic manipulation to pharmacology and surgical tehniques - are rapidly making it possible to enhance an individual's appearance, mood, mental and physical abilities, and even personality in ways previously only imagined. In this volume, scholars from philosophy, sociology, history, theology, women's studies and law explore the looming ethical and social implications of these biotechnologies. To clarify the issues, the contributors grapple with the central concept of "enhancement" and probe the uses and abuses of the term. They identify the critical difficulty in distinguishing between treatment and enhancement - a distinction crucial to future policymaking as well as to moral debate. Focusing in particular on the moral issues pertaining to cosmetic surgery and cosmetic psychopharmacology (a category which includes Prozac), they also examine notions of identity, authenticity, normality and complicity.
Other essays in this collection address the social ramifications of the technologies, including the problems of access and fairness; the threat of imposing dominant conceptions of normality; and the temptation to ignore the complex causes of some forms of suffering.