A practical example occurred at the end of January when Neuralink, an American neurotechnology company owned by Elon Musk, implanted a brain chip in the first human patient, who was soon able to move his computer cursor by just using his mind.
According to its website, Neuralink’s mission is to “create a generalized brain interface to restore autonomy to those with unmet medical needs today and unlock human potential tomorrow.”
One of the main ethical challenges posed by transhumanism, according to Asla, is the impact it would have on all aspects of human life, from “reproduction and birth to social organization, including education, emotional life, work, and aging.”
By radically modifying the human body, Asla points out that there is a need to carefully analyze the possible benefits but also “the costs, risks, and possible unintended consequences.”
“For example, if in order to extend the longevity of some people it is necessary to experiment on healthy people and expose them to unpredictable risks that would not be morally permissible. Another common moral objection made to these proposals is the real possibility of generating an exponential increase in human inequalities, giving rise to elite social classes (the improved ones) and vulnerable and at-risk classes (the natural ones),” he warned.
According to the Argentine philosopher, the greatest challenge that transhumanism presents is to recover an adequate philosophy and theology of the human body and pointed to the legacy of St. John Paul II, which was “a step forward and an interesting source for a defense of what we are.”