2. Beyond Therapy: Biotechnology and the Pursuit of Happiness Questions for Reflection “What’s at issue is not the crude old power to kill the creature made in God’s image but the attractive science-based power to remake ourselves after images of our own devising. As a result, it gives unexpected practical urgency to ancient philosophical questions: What is a good life? What is a good community?” President’s Council on Bioethics, Beyond Therapy: Biotechnology and the Pursuit of Happiness

3. In regard to biotechnology, to what sin against the Golden Mean are we more tempted – excess or deficiency? – Are we more tempted to try to produce supermen with no limitations? – Are we more more tempted to produce, à la Brave New World, “happy peppy people” content with superficiality and mediocrity? In regard to biotechnology, how will we cope with the law of unintended consequences?

4. Will the expanding use of biotechnology instill in humans an ever growing sense of entitlement to have what we want, when and how we want it? How great is the danger of crossing the Borg threshold, i.e. relying on technology to such a degree that humans are no longer persons but merely complicated bio-techno-machines? Could biotechnology lead to the end of truly human achievement because it makes achievement too easy?

5. Is striving and attaining but with difficulty part of what it means to be human? Is the human desire for contentment and perfection inconsistent with the human need for difficulties to overcome? Does being truly human mean accepting that, in this life at least, we will never be truly whole, complete, or fulfilled?