PLoS medicine has two articles worthy of discussion this week.

The first, a debate on the ethics and practicality of using medicine to improve on "normality". The first debater, Arthur Caplan, uses the annoying terminology of 'meliorist' to describe one who would attempt to strive for perfection using technology. It's not a terrible argument, that there is nothing inherently wrong with using technology to improve human life, even if unnecessary. I'm tired anyway of people making the argument that things are unnatural as if it's a bad thing to act unnaturally. As if anything humans do is natural. The problem is he uses argument by analogy and straw men to debate his point. I think you could come up with a much better argument for justifying a future in which we all have robot monkey bodies. Mine would have the strength of five gorillas.

Anyway, his terrible arguments make the arguments of Carl Elliot look much better. His arguments are simple, believable, and backed up by data. It's simple. Melioration is a mistake because there isn't any real way to improve yourself in a meaningful way. It's much more likely that you'll just be buying into some drug company's bullshit diseasemongering and try to fix something that isn't really defective due to the perception of a flaw built into you by constant marketing. He's got a good point, and one that PLoS has extensively documented.

However, I would argue that if real opportunities to improve ourselves, genetically, chemically, surgically, etc., avail themselves there isn't anything inherently wrong with utilizing them. We've already come to accept things like breast augmentation, rhinoplasty, liposection etc., even if over-utilized (or abused in the cases of body-dysmorphic disorder-aka Michael Jackson), what's wrong with a robot monkey body? Or even the Barbobot?



The second story of interest is on bias in scientific reporting. It's ok, but I would rather they would focus more on the awful, stupid reporting of nanny-science that we've mocked again and again.

Oh well, maybe I'll write them a letter.