Hayes 1 Katherine Hayes Erin Dietel-McLaughlin Writing and Rhetoric 13300 11/15/13 Achieving Typical Human Ability Mery

Daniel was only 31 years old when her life was changed forever. She was at the finish line of the Boston Marathon, cheering on the runners as they passed. As she stood on Boylston Street, twin pressure-cooker bombs went off, sending Mery and many others to emergency rooms around Boston. In order to save her life, her left leg was amputated just above her knee, forcing her to relearn how to walk with a new prosthetic leg. This prosthetic technology will allow Mery to regain her place in the world more easily than she otherwise may have been able to. (Muphy) Technology including, but not limited to, prosthesis has become an inherent part of modern human life and it will continue to expand its impact on the human race for the foreseeable future. Whether it is through the development of new tools, treatments or procedures, technology allows for more fluid integration and cooperation between organic and inorganic systems as it advances. Therefore, the use of medical technologies is made more practical. Many of these technologies are developed by biomedical engineers, and it can be argued that these continued improvements of the human body through biomedical engineering should be considered unethical in practice, since they can allow for superhuman capabilities in

Hayes 2 their users. However, I believe that as long as devices do not allow their operators to perform past the point of typical human ability, advances in medical technologies should continue to be researched and developed by biomedical engineers for the betterment of medical treatments. In this way, said engineers can serve the purpose which is assigned to them by their profession: to combine the fields of science and maths to solve real world problems that improve the world around us (What You Need to Know). As stated in the above paragraph, the point at which medical technologies become unethical is where the devices allow for their operators to extend their potential past the point of typical human ability. The concept of typical human ability defines the physical wellbeing and capability of a person according to the natural biological traits of the majority of the human population. A person who possesses typical human ability aligns with the greater part of the human population in his or her capabilities. For example, such a person lacks elevated risk for disease, is independently mobile, and has organs that function properly. Therefore, one who does not demonstrate the fullness of his or her own human ability would be one who does not fit with the majority of the human population in one or more categories, such as those who are blind, amputees, or people whose genes indicate predispositions to cancers or other diseases. By avoiding the development of devices that allow the human body to execute actions past its typical ability, the research and production of engineered medical devices will remain ethical and should be continued. In following with the idea of ethical conduct in the field of biomedical engineering, a movement called Transhumanism should be brought into context. Transhumanism can be defined as a way of thinking about the future that is based on the premise that the human species in its current form does not represent the end of our

Hayes 3 development but rather a comparatively early phase (Transhumanist FAQ). In order to advance further on the timeline of human development, transhumanists explore the advancement of new technologies to enhance the state of humankind. However, many of their methods can be seen as controversial and fall under the category of engineering that should be considered unethical. One such example of unethical transhumanist technologies is cryonics. In the context of typical human ability, death indisputably ends the physical life of every human being. With the technology of cryonics, transhumanists hope to alter that reality by indefinitely maintaining human bodies until the equipment has been created to revive anyone whose natural process of death was interrupted by the preservation of their cells and tissues in liquid nitrogen (Anissimov). According to the Cryonics Institute, this is a visionary concept that holds out the promise of a second chance at life life with renewed health, vitality, and youth that has potential to become an everyday reality in the not-so-distant future (About Cryonics). As utopian as that potential sounds, it is extremely unethical because it is preserving the human body and then unnaturally extending its lifetime past the point of typical human ability. It also raises the issue of further accentuating differences between socioeconomic classes. Although the process of cryonization is not outlandishly expensive $28,000 from the Cryonics Institute it is still not a very feasible amount for people whose lives are lived without absolute monetary stability. By economically allowing some people to be revived and indirectly excluding others from the process, cryonics could become extremely detrimental to the already difficult reality of division of classes. That separation would in turn give some people a much greater advantage over others, an advantage derived completely from privilege and without

Hayes 4 responsibility. Although such an advantage is natural in todays social structure, it is neither natural nor ethical when the advantage is gained through means that artificially alter a humans prospective biological potential past the point of typical human ability. Another example of an unethical technology that is being explored by transhumanists is the procedure behind RNA interference. The National Institute of General Medical Sciences defines RNA interference as a natural process that cells use to turn down, or silence, the activity of specific genes. However, this process can also be inorganically induced. With the unnatural processes in mind, transhumanists hope to develop a way to use RNA interference to extend the human lifespan and stop the expression of certain genes (Anissimov). The extension of the lifespan of humans is unethical for reasons similar to those that make cryonics unethical. Humans should not artificially extend their lives, because it exceeds their natural ability as humans, and therefore takes away from their humanity. Also, extending the lives would further contribute to an already worrisome issue surrounding worldwide population growth. If people do not continue to die of natural causes, the population will lose a critical self-regulation method and resources will become scarcer. By eventually creating problems with resource scarcity, the engineers in charge of developing this life-extending technology would not have been improv*ing+ the world around us (What You Need to Know) in the way that engineers are intended to. However, RNA interference can also be used constructively: to restore typical human ability rather than to surpass it. The restoration of ability is ethical because it simply allows for someone without typical human ability to experience living to his or her full potential. There are significant indications that RNA interference can be used to stop the expression of selected

Hayes 5 genes. With this process, people who are susceptible to certain genetic disorders and diseases such as hemophilia and some cancers can either be cured or their diseases can be prevented altogether by not allowing the mutated genes to express themselves. With these two uses of RNA interference in mind, it is possible to come to the conclusion that interference can be considered both ethical and unethical, depending on whether it is used to exceed or to align with typical human ability. As demonstrated by RNA interference, not all processes and devices that have the potential to allow for superhuman abilities should be considered ethically wrong. It is possible for those technologies to be a combination of ethical and unethical, and it is possible for those technologies to seem unethical but be practically ethical. A device that embodies the latter is the winner of the 2013 James Dyson Award for design engineering: the Titan Arm. The website for the James Dyson Foundation the organization which issues the annual award describes the Titan Arm as a mechanical exoskeleton whose purpose is to prevent the worsening or development of back injuries for people whose jobs require lifting heavy objects. In order to serve its purpose, it is explained that the device provides additional lifting strength to the wearer without tether cables or invasive machinery. In this way, workers can continue to perform the tasks required of them without harming themselves (2013 International). Although extra strength can be considered a superhuman ability, the Titan Arm remains ethical because it is used as a tool and does not permanently alter the state of the wearer, therefore the device does not lend lasting superiority to the user. As long as technological advances are being treated as tools to aid in the betterment of the human situation, the devices or processes tend not to be irreversibly improving a persons body. It is when technology is permanently

Hayes 6 integrated into the human body that the point of typical human ability is crossed, deeming said technology unethical. Whether someone is born with a birth defect, is a victim of disaster, or is a wounded veteran, he or she should be allowed the same opportunity to experience his or her full physical ability as a person who naturally possesses typical human ability. For this reason, the continued development of biomedical devices is very ethically driven. The best way for amputees to experience a state of complete physical capability is to artificially replace missing or amputated limbs with prosthetic devices that function as similarly as possible to their biological human counterparts. There are two kinds of technology currently under development that can help to make prostheses more realistic in their function and their connection to the natural human body. The first of these technologies is the imitation of natural gait. Often when a patient is first beginning to learn to use a prosthetic device, it is uncomfortable and awkward, mainly for the reason that the device does not function exactly as their original limb had. Mery Daniel, an aforementioned survivor of the Boston Bombing that occurred in April of 2013, recognizes that even the most advanced technology was clumsy compared with the leg *she+ had lost (Murphy). Daniel is not alone in feeling that her prosthetic could not ever repla ce her natural limbs. However, engineers are working to develop new prosthetics that will be much easier to adjust to. In the article Microprocessor-controlled Prosthesis Imitates Natural Gait, the Healio Medical News team describes a prosthetic device for the ankle and foot that is being programmed to perform very similarly to the natural ankle. The article goes on to explain that the improved range of motion allows for the devices operator to walk through turns in a way so natural that the prosthetic seems to be a true human body part. The innate fluidity of this

Hayes 7 and similar maneuvers will help shorten and make easier the adjustment period that an amputee would usually need to grow accustomed to his or her new device and lifestyle. If this technology is developed to a point of efficiency and is able to be offered to a wide range of patients, there would be a much greater opportunity for those who do not possess full physically capability to experience their entire potential and to reach or regain a level of typical human ability. In addition to more realistic movement, there have also been recent developments in adding a sense of touch to prosthetics, particularly to the fingertips of devices worn to replace arms and hands. According to Mark Miodownik, a writer for the Guardian, there is a potential for such technology to soon be integrated into prosthetic devices. This advancement, Miodownik explains, is a by-product of the telecommunications revolution. As cell phones and other communication devices grow smaller and faster, their technologies become more accessible to the engineering market and allow for developers to explore their other applications. In this case, it has been found that technology similar to that of touch screens can be used to help simulate a realistic sense of touch. A study and development of such technology was conducted by Zhong Lin Wang and his team of researchers at Georgia Tech. Through their research, they have created smart skin that accurately mimics the sense of touch. It could eventually be used in robotics, human-computer interfaces, and advanced prosthetic devices (Dvorsky). The only current inhibiting factors, according to Dvorsky, are that it has limitations as to which materials it can sense and that there is not yet a system that can use the signals as triggers to proper reflexive responses. However, upon the development of

Hayes 8 technology that can react to stimuli appropriately, prosthetics will be one step closer to giving amputees a chance to live their lives as people with typical human ability. Also through advancements in telecommunications technologies, microprocessors have been developed that can provide prosthetics with faster and more sophisticated computers while actually making the devices lighter and simpler to operate. This mode of operation is one that is highly desirable by consumers for communication technologies such as cell phones and laptops. The high demand for these microprocessors allows them to become more easily produced and obtained by researchers who desire to use them elsewhere. An example of an alternative use of this technology can be seen in the previously discussed technology which mimics natural human ankle movement. The reason that this prosthetic device is able to function as well as it does is because it is controlled by a microprocessor, and can therefore perform complicated tasks with high efficiency. As well as making prosthetics operate more successfully, microprocessors can also diminish barriers between the physical and mechanical systems involved in prosthetic use. In a report from Fox News, Joe McTernan, director of reimbursement services for the American Orthotic & Prosthetic Association, states that with microprocessor technology, electrodes are placed over the socket of the limb and the patient is trained that when they flex certain muscles, it sends a signal to the motor to do a specific motion. In this way, the prostheses are able to function as a part of the human bod y instead of as a machine alongside the body. The effortless connection between a person and his or her prosthesis makes that person even more likely to seek and accomplish typical human ability, regardless of his or her previous state of being.

Hayes 9 If engineers utilize newly developing technologies such as microprocessors and smart skins in their studies of biomedical engineering, the goal of typical human ability can become increasingly more achievable by those who otherwise would be permanently handicapped. Therefore, it is not only ethical but morally essential that research be continued in developing areas of medical technologies, in order to allow as equal physical capability as possible to the entire human population. In doing so, however, it is vital that the boundary of typical human ability is not crossed. When it is, ethical conduct becomes impossible and social complications may arise from the resulting situations.

Hayes 10 Works Cited "2013 International Winner: Titan Arm." James Dyson Foundation. James Dyson Foundation, 2013. Web. 08 Nov. 2013. "About Cryonics." Cryonics. Cryonics Institute, n.d. Web. 14 Nov. 2013. "Advances in Prosthesis." Fox News. FOX News Network, 24 May 2007. Web. 15 Nov. 2013. Anissimov, Michael. "Top Ten Transhumanist Technologies." Lifeboat. Lifeboat Foundation, n.d. Web. 14 Nov. 2013. Dvorsky, George. "New Artificial Skin Is as Sensitive as Human Fingertips." Io9. Io9, 26 Apr. 2013. Web. 15 Nov. 2013. "Microprocessor-controlled Prosthesis Imitates Natural Gait." Healio: Medical News. Healio, 15 Oct. 2013. Web. 08 Nov. 2013. Miodownik, Mark. "The Technology That Puts the Human Touch into Prostheses." The Guardian. Guardian News and Media Limited, 26 Oct. 2013. Web. 08 Nov. 2013. Murphy, Bridget. "Step by Step, Boston Marathon Amputee Reinvents Her Life." Lehigh Valley Live. PennLive, LLC, 15 Oct. 2013. Web. 08 Nov. 2013. "RNA Interference Fact Sheet." National Institute of General Medical Sciences. US Department of Health and Human Services, 12 June 2013. Web. 14 Nov. 2013. Scientist, New. "Health & Science." The Washington Post. The Washington Post, 30 Sept. 2013. Web. 08 Nov. 2013.

Hayes 11 "Transhumanist FAQ." Humanity Plus. Humanity+, n.d. Web. 14 Nov. 2013. "What You Need To Know About Engineering!" What Is Engineering. Avada, 2012. Web. 14 Nov. 2013.