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Parker Crutchfield, Moral Enhancement Can Kill, The Journal of Medicine and Philosophy: A Forum for Bioethics and Philosophy of Medicine, Volume 43, Issue 5, October 2018, Pages 568–584, https://doi.org/10.1093/jmp/jhy020
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Abstract
There is recent empirical evidence that personal identity is constituted by one’s moral traits. If true, this poses a problem for those who advocate for moral enhancement, or the manipulation of a person’s moral traits through pharmaceutical or other biological means. Specifically, if moral enhancement manipulates a person’s moral traits, and those moral traits constitute personal identity, then it is possible that moral enhancement could alter a person’s identity. I go a step further and argue that under the right conditions, moral enhancement can kill the subject of the enhancement. I then argue that these conditions are not remote.