Less Than Human: Just say no to Francis Fukuyama
Haseltine, William A.
"Less Than Human" FIRST FRANCIS FUKUYAMA ENDED HISTORY. NOW HE WANTS TO STOP SCIENCE T00. BY WILLIAM A. HASELTINE Frances Fukuyama is worried. He fears that biotechnology will alter human nature,...
...In his mind, human rights are inextricably derived from human nature and natural law, although he does acknowledge there may be other bases for such rights—religion, for example...
...Fukuyama provides encouragement that such new international regulatory agencies may spring to life...
...William A. Haseltine is chairman & CEO of Human Genome Sciences, Inc...
...In Our Posthuman Future Fukuyama may be doing his best to fulfill his own earlier prophecy...
...Presumably, although not stated, the bulwark against such a future will be the establishment of the International Agency for Prevention of Personality Altering Medication that will regulate research of brain function and neuropharmacology...
...He notes "as the more perceptive critics of the concept of the `end of history' have pointed out, there can be no end of history without an end of science and natural history" His proposed supernational scientific regulatory agency may indeed end history...
...He writes, "Medical technology offers us in many cases a devil's bargain: long life with reduced mental capacity .. " (later he adds sexual capacity as well...
...Progress in neuroscience may lead to new means to prevent and cure Parkinson's and Alzheimer's diseases...
...Fukuyama pays scant attention to the fact that modern medicine, genetics and neuropharmacology are dedicated not to altering human kind, but rather to improving human health and alleviating human suffering...
...The threat of new restrictions to biomedical progress is real...
...Evidently, the trouble ahead lies not only in our genes, but also in our minds...
...If genetics alone determines human nature, then any influence mankind may exercise over the luck of the genetic draw must necessarily alter our nature and usher in a posthuman future...
...Fukuyama also argues that to alter human nature is to undermine human rights, or in Eurospeak, human dignity...
...Human nature, we are informed "is the sum of the behavior and characteristics that are typical of the human species, arising from genetics rather than environmental factors"To arrive at this conclusion, he accepts factually compromised and controversial arguments that complex behaviors, including intelligence, criminality and sexual orientation, are genetically determined...
...At best, the quantitative basis for such thinking is tenuous and subject to directly conflicting evidence...
...JRP therapies that blur the lines between what we achieve on our own and what we achieve because of the levels of various chemicals in our brain...
...Its descriptions of what has been accomplished over the past decades appear largely to have been culled from a casual reading of popular magazines and newspapers.The wonder and mystery of this science, and its impact on our health today and the health of our children, is mostly overlooked...
...Legislation is currently pending in the United States and else-where to restrict, even to criminalize, research endeavors.We now face the possibility that fears of a "posthuman future" will be added to what are now mostly ideological and religious arguments...
...Research underway on our understanding of genes and stem cells may lead to new types of regenerative treatments, whereby damaged or diseased organs and tissues may be restored to normal function...
...His proposed solution is a new international regulatory agency, with effective enforcement power to restrict biomedical research and its applications...
...Achievements that I believe will one day be regarded as a golden moment in human accomplishment are viewed in this book through a narrow, fearful gaze.The reader may judge for himself which outcome is more dangerous—control of biomedical research by a supernational authority—or continued scientific and medical progress...
...Those seeking an understanding of mod-ern medicine and bioscience will not find it in Fukuyama's book...
...Fukuyama's new book—with an oxymoron for a title, Our Posthuman Future summarizes his understanding of human nature, neuropharmacology and biotechnology, and outlines his view of the new science's potential impact on human life...
...Just as bio-engineering may lead to "a much more genetically egalitarian society" in which "large genetic variables between individuals will narrow and become clustered within a distinct social group," so too will advances in brain and cognitive function lead to a society in which human nature will be pharmacologically "gently nudged toward that androgynous median personality, self-satisfied and socially compliant, that is the current politically correct outcome in American society...
...He fears that biotechnology will alter human nature, undermine human rights and usher in a "posthuman" future...
...freedom from depression, together with freedom from creativity or spirit...
...His own view of our unprotected future is different...
...and death—through research left undone...
...Less Than Human FIRST FRANCIS FUKUYAMA ENDED HISTORY...
...His central thesis requires this dubious def inition, which strips human nature of familial, historical, cultural and political content...
...He largely ignores this powerful truth in pursuing his argument that research and its application must be restrained, restricted and regulated...
...He cites Thomas Jefferson as wondering what will happen to political rights once we are able, in effect, to breed some people with saddles on their backs, and others with boots and spurs...
...To understand our unpleasant future, he begins by suggesting that we read Brave New World Dr...
...by Aldous Huxley, a world of predetermined genetically stratified alphas, betas and gammas...
...He cites the success of the United Nations and the World Health Organization in establishing CodexAlimentarius—a global food code—as a response to the advent of genetically modified food organisms...
...OUR POP HUMAN (U FRANCIS FUKUYAMA MARCH/APRIL 2002 • THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR 59...
...Nowhere does he describe how such breeding is to be accomplished...
...He does not address the cost such regulation may bring—in human suffering Our Posthuman Future: Consequences of the Biotechnology Revolution will be published in April by Farrar Straus E Giroux...
Vol. 35 • March 2002 • No. 2
