The Medicine-Society Relationship in the Debate on Human Enhancement

The unprecedented development in the fields of biomedicine and the diffusion of sophisticated technologies has led to a rethinking of medical practice. In particular, human enhancement makes this re-examination urgent because in general it refers to enhancing healthy human beings with medical means to improve their abilities and traits. In other words, through human enhancement there is an application of medical knowledge and technologies to issues that are not originally thought as medical ones: medicine is not simply used to overcome biological pathologies, but to actually improve human capacities. Nevertheless, it would be wrong to exclusively explore this aspect within the conversation about the proper aims of medical practice, neglecting the purposes of society. Indeed, medicine does not exist in isolation and it must be in dialogue with the society it serves. If that is true, what kind of relationship can be established between the proper aims of medicine and the purposes of society? Is there any order of priority? Should medicine be constantly redefined on the basis of social needs/desires? To discuss these issues, the paper is developed in three stages: first, by focusing on the therapy/enhancement distinction and its limitations; second, by referring to the ends/goals of medicine distinction proposed by Edmund D. Pellegrino; third, by analysing the latter distinction as regards the debate on human enhancement.