Forum
Genetic virtue, reconsidered
Enhancing genetic virtue?
Nicholas Agar
School of History, Philosophy, Political Science, and International Relations
Victoria University of Wellington
Wellington 6140
New Zealand
[e-mail]
ark Walker s fascinating paper calls for a including measures designed to boost responsiveness to
Genetic Virtue Program (GVP) an inter- ethical or moral reasons to levels properly considered
M
disciplinary effort to enhance human ethics. normal for humans. Moral enhancement has the
He urges that we achieve this by   promoting genes that purpose of boosting responsiveness to ethical or moral
influence the acquisition of the virtues.  1 Although the reasons to levels beyond that considered normal for
GVP is a worthy focus of philosophical debate, I have human beings. My purpose in this commentary is to
to confess to some doubts about its viability. We suggest that moral enhancement is a much more
patently don t live in the best of all possible worlds, but problematic undertaking than moral therapy.
I m skeptical about the notion that the way to improve Moral therapy is defined by reference to what we
the world is to make deliberate and specific ethical or consider normal for humans it aspires to preserve or
moral enhancements. restore a capacity to respond to the range of moral
First, we need to clarify what kinds of changes to concerns that normal humans respond to. For example,
humans would count as   specifically ethical or moral psychopaths exhibit a pathological lack of empathy.
enhancements.  Some philosophers distinguish be- They can intellectually grasp that their actions cause
tween therapy, which includes measures to maintain suffering, but they lack the negative affects experienced
people at levels of functioning considered normal for by others who find themselves in suffering s proximity.
human beings, and enhancement, which encompasses Some researchers hope to find genes that contribute to
measures whose purpose is to boost levels of function- psychopathy. Suppose we were both to find them and
ing beyond human norms. Fixing the version of the to discover a way to fix them, thereby endowing the
huntingtin gene linked with the ruinous neurodegener- likes of John Wayne Gacy or Ted Bundy with a normal
ative disorder Huntington disease is gene therapy. A sensitivity to suffering. This improvement should be
genetic modification whose purpose is to boost viewed by Walker as moral therapy. It gives recipients
memory beyond human norms is, in contrast, a genetic a capacity for empathy and therefore a degree of
enhancement. People with normal powers of memory responsiveness to moral concerns that we consider
are candidates for enhancement, but not for therapy, normal. Damage to the brain s frontal lobe can affect a
which is addressed only at those who fall below a level person s capacity to evaluate the consequences of his or
of functioning considered normal for humans. The her actions. Since the evaluation of consequences is
therapy/enhancement distinction is not without philo- central to many views of morality, a procedure that
sophical detractors but it does help us to get a fix on used stem cells to remedy frontal lobe damage might be
Walker s GVP. We can understand moral therapy as counted as moral therapy.
Walker wants to do more than fix the ethical defects
of psychopaths or of those oblivious to other kinds of
doi: 10.2990/29_1_73
POLITICS AND THE LIFE SCIENCES N MARCH 2010 N VOL. 29, NO. 1 73
Agar
moral reasons. The idea of moral enhancement certainly they will seek to reduce sensitivity to false or
seems coherent many of us subscribe to moral theories misleading moral reasons. Consider an analogous case.
that leave quite a distance between us and our moral Suppose you set out to enhance humans powers of
ideals. I find Walker s decision to call his program the scientific reasoning. You would aim to produce a
Genetic Virtue Program slightly puzzling considering capacity to recognize truths about the world beyond
that the idea of moral enhancement seems against the unenhanced humans. But you would also aim to make
spirit of virtue ethics. One of the central themes of virtue people less susceptible to false theories, less likely than
ethics is the importance of striking a balance between the rest of us to be convinced by astrology or
the moral and nonmoral aspects of our lives. Virtue creationism. As moral enhancement increases its
ethicists think that you can be too moral. One cost of subjects ability to recognize moral truth, it should
greater responsiveness to moral reasons could be also reduce their susceptibility to moral arguments
reduced responsiveness to nonmoral reasons. Moral rejected by their enhancers. Dexter s lack of empathy
enhancement could leave us with less time to work on permits him to commit utility-maximizing killings that
the various nonmoral projects that we find enjoyable or would be psychologically impossible for most of the
admirable, such as perfecting tennis backhands or rest of us. At the conclusion of the show s first season,
becoming experts on comic opera. his moral calculations lead him to kill his mass-
Suppose we restrict our attention to conceptions of murdering brother. He happily euthanizes a terminal-
morality more open to enhancement. We still find ly-ill friend who requests it. Dexter s psychopathy
problems at the level of the psychological mechanisms seems to make him a candidate for ethics therapy and
that must be adjusted to arrange these moral improve- at the same time can be viewed as morally enhancing
ments. The moral sensibilities of normal humans him.
provide a relatively stable reference point for moral Utilitarian moral enhancers might find eliminating
therapy. In repairing the moral disabilities of psycho- empathy to be a dangerous policy. If the result is a
paths we make them more like the rest of us. But moral Dexter who unwaveringly maximizes utility, then all s
enhancement is addressed at those who fall within the well. If the unempathetic beings created by genetic
normal range and must therefore look to a moral engineers lack Dexter s interest in morality, then we
theory for guidance. Here s where we run into trouble. might succeed only in bringing into existence more
Utilitarians, Kantians, virtue ethicists, and advocates of Gacys or Bundys. Perhaps a more reliable path of
various religious ethics can agree that a world that utilitarian moral enhancement is to boost the capacity
contained agents more prone to help victims of famine for empathy rather than to eliminate it altogether. The
and less prone to murder would be morally better than normal human capacity for empathy makes most of us
the one we currently inhabit. But they disagree about feel bad when exposed to suffering. Some psychopaths
the moral reasons that should guide us as we confront act immorally because they lack empathy. But non-
these issues. Their disagreements over which are the psychopaths are far from perfect in this regard. Most
genuine moral reasons leads to disagreement about the people felt empathy when watching news reports on
modifications we should introduce to make people the Haitian earthquake. But the feeling soon fades.
more responsive to morality. Half an hour later we re searching the Internet for
The central character of the Showtime series Dexter cheap accommodation at a holiday destination where
is a psychopath who resolves to do the morally correct we hope our only point of contact with poverty is in the
thing. He restricts his killing to evil types who would willingness of the hotel staff to accept tiny payments in
otherwise escape justice. It s possible that Dexter s exchange for carrying bags and bringing cocktails. A
actions make the world a happier place. He enjoys genetic alteration that made the experience of empathy
killing and we can presume that the individuals who stickier might lead it to remain in our consciousness in
become his victims would otherwise long continue the way that unpleasant experiences remain in the
their murdering ways. minds of victims of post-traumatic stress disorder. The
Is Dexter a morally enhanced being? Utilitarian need to alleviate suffering wouldn t rapidly fade from
moral enhancers might say so. In addition to boosting consciousness when we remove ourselves from its
sensitivity to the veridical, utilitarian moral reasons, proximity.
74 POLITICS AND THE LIFE SCIENCES N MARCH 2010 N VOL. 29, NO. 1
Genetic virtue, reconsidered
Advocates of other moral theories will be less seems to treat innocent people as mere means even if he
enthusiastic about this purported enhancement. For strongly believes that more innocents will end up dying if
Kantians, it is not enough that someone does the right the city is left standing. Someone who has been subjected
thing. Doing the right thing because it gives you a good to moral enhancement is likely to have a reduced
feeling differs from doing it because you recognize its sensitivity to moral reasons rejected by his or her
moral rightness. In the above example, the enhanced enhancer. Moral enhancement therefore has the poten-
state of empathy is like a toothache that impels us to tial to undermine morally diverse liberal democracies
visit the dentist because it won t go away. Kantians will whose success depends on insight into the different and
view the heightened state of empathy as a distraction diverse moral motivations of fellow citizens.
from our moral mission. It runs counter to the
None of this is to say that the world is morally
rationality that Kant thought was morality s source.
optimal. We should strive to improve it. But we don t
This commentary has described cases in which
need moral enhancement to achieve this. We don t
enhancements according to one view of morality are
need superior moral vision to understand that poverty,
likely to be diminishments according to other views. It
climate change, and terrorism are bad things. The
may not be surprising that there is no unambiguous
diverse moral views that connect with our shared
trajectory of moral enhancement. But morality isn t
humanity are unanimous on the need to do something
just a random topic that philosophers like to argue
about them. We do need enhanced effort and perhaps
about. The many different theories of right and wrong
enhanced nonmoral powers to fix poverty, climate
connect morality to different aspects of a shared
change, and terrorism but we don t need enhanced
human nature. They encapsulate different views about
moral vision to recognize that they need fixing.
the qualities of human beings that are of utmost
importance. For utilitarians, our capacity for suffering
Nicholas Agar is Reader in Philosophy at Victoria University
and enjoyment matters the most. Kantians prize
of Wellington, New Zealand. His primary research interests
practical rationality. For some advocates of religious
are in the ethics of the new genetics. Agar s latest book,
morality, it s the fact that we re purportedly made in
Humanity s End: Why We Should Reject Radical Enhance-
  God s image.  And so on.
ment, is scheduled to be published by MIT Press this fall.
Our sensitivity to moral reasons that we may
intellectually reject is a valuable part of being human.
References
It s a good thing that someone contemplating firebomb-
ing a city, on the grounds that this action is clearly the
1. Mark Walker,   Enhancing genetic virtue: A project for
correct action in terms of the utilitarianism that he
twenty-first century humanity?  Politics and the Life
intellectually endorses, hesitates on the grounds that it Sciences, 2009, 28(2): 27 47.
POLITICS AND THE LIFE SCIENCES N MARCH 2010 N VOL. 29, NO. 1 75
Copyright of Politics & the Life Sciences is the property of Association for Politics & the Life Sciences and its
content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's
express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use.