Sul rapporto tra human enhancement e tutela della dignità: la dignità umana e sociale del lavoratore “aumentato”

Abstract

On the relationship between human enhancement and the protection of dignity: The human and social dignity of the “enhanced” worker
This article analyses the concept of human enhancement, understood as the use of biomedical technologies on healthy individuals for non-therapeutic purposes, with the aim of improving their performance, looks or well-being. After clarifying the distinction between therapeutic and enhancement medical interventions, it highlights, on the one hand, the central role of performance and, on the other hand, the generally permanent nature of the interventions, as distinctive features of the practices in question. The investigation then turns to the use of enhancement techniques in the workplace, highlighting the risks of violation of the human dignity of workers, deriving above all from the implantation of enhancement devices connected to the Internet, attributable to the “Internet of bodies”, which expose workers to forms of control that can be properly described in terms of reification. Finally, the impact of the use of the technologies in question on the equal social dignity of workers is emphasized, deriving from the ability of enhancement interventions to give rise to significant disparities – also in terms of social value – between enhanced and non-enhanced workers (and between enhanced workers themselves), which are likely to generate new forms of social discrimination.