Science’s enhancements to body and mind raise ethical questions

New York Times : Biomedical and bioengineering advances promise physical, genetic, and bionic advantages for humans, for example in hearing, eyesight, prosthetics, disease resistance, and capacity for endurance. But the Age of Enhancement will also bring a new range of ethical challenges, with questions of safety, cost, privileged versus general accessibility, and effects on the social compact. Brain implants are beginning to re-empower the paralyzed. What about augmenting the nonimpaired—for example, elective enhancements to memory, alertness, attention, and general cognitive efficiency? Might society begin to demand such changes in key national leaders, for example? What about surgeons, if enhancements can safely boost concentration and steady the scalpel-holding hand? If elective artificial enhancements became the norm in competitive academic environments, and not just in athletics, would parents and students feel forced to adopt them?