Genetic Enhancement, Technological Objectification, and Heidegger’s Gelassenheit

Genetic Enhancement, Technological Objectification, and Heidegger’s Gelassenheit

This article combines the works of Nussbaum, Habermas, and Heidegger in a critique of non-therapeutic genome editing for human enhancement. The objections presented by Habermas in his The Future of Human Nature are extended and strengthened. We outline how ‘enhancement’ editing is a form of objectification. We agree with Habermas that therapeutic uses of genome editing are permissible but disagree with those who advocate for genetic enhancement technology. This is supplemented with Heidegger’s view on technology where we demonstrate that genetic enhancement can be a form of technological enframing which objectifies and interferes with the self-understanding, freedom, autonomy, and possibilities of the edited person. Instead, we argue that genetic enhancement objectification should be ‘released’ from the unborn child through an appreciation of Heidegger’s Gelassenheit, allowing each human the freedom and opportunity to fully realise and grow into their unconcealed place and home in the world rather than it being made for them.