Medical ethicist examines ‘how to build a better human’

Tyler Greer | University of Alabama at Birmingham | September 6, 2012

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Science moves fast these days, and remarkable tools for human enhancement seem to emerge frenetically. Society often questions the way these tools should be wielded or whether they should be used at all.

UAB philosophy Professor Gregory Pence, Ph.D., examines these issues in his latest book, How to Build a Better Human: An Ethical Blueprint, released Aug. 16. In the book, Pence writes about improving the human stock from two directions — eliminating dysfunction caused by bad genes and trauma and allowing adults voluntarily to improve themselves. To do this, Pence says, the “underground” research being performed on steroids, mind-expanding drugs, doping and cosmetic dermatology must be studied in the open, scientifically. Pence uses science, logic and ethics to analyze these controversial and ethical issues, as he did in previous works, including Medical Ethics, Elements of Bioethics, Who’s Afraid of Human Cloning? and Cloning After Dolly.