Extract
The use of biotechnology to enhance the overall functional health of individuals is not a new concept. Historically, orthopaedic surgeons have used therapeutic treatments to facilitate healing and improve or enhance the functional status of their patients. In recent years, the term enhancement biotechnology has been used in different contexts, resulting in divergent ethical opinions1. Some suggest that enhancement biotechnology is nothing more than a utilization of one or more means of biotechnology in a health-related manner in order to correct a pathologic condition. This approach involves the use of biotechnology to treat individuals with known diseases, disabilities, or impairments in an attempt to restore them to a normal state of health and fitness. This definition is compatible with the concept of biotechnology being used for therapy. Others suggest that enhancement biotechnology means the utilization of biotechnology to change some physical (e.g., height or size), intellectual, or behavioral characteristic that may be within the range of normal but for which some improvement is desired2. Enhancement is then defined as the use of biotechnology in a nonhealth-related manner in order "to alter, by direct intervention, not disease processes but the ‘normal’ workings of the human body and psyche, to augment or improve their native capacities and performances."1,2