Neuro-Prosthetics, the Extended Mind, and Respect for Persons with Disability

Abstract

In discussions of performance enhancement, as in applied ethics generally, it is tempting to think that we can answer the hard ethical questions by discovering boundary lines that lie in the subject matter itself. The hope, here, is that we could settle an array of thorny issues if only we could identify the fault-lines between, for example, therapy and enhancement, or between pharmacological identitymanagement and the restoration of the authentic self. And within the wider public debate, there are loud voices declaring that the boundary-lines are actually so obvious that only self-interested lawyers and out-of-touch intellectuals could miss them.