George Mason University New Biomedical Enhancement Technologies Questions

Question Description

1. Which claim best characterizes Buchanan’s position regarding possible new biomedical-enhancement technologies:

		A. We should try to eliminate their wide-spread use.
		B. We should accept and encourage their development in the fastest time possible.
		C. We should proceed cautiously but continue to be on the lookout for any possible harms they might cause.
		D. We should avoid forming opinions on their possible benefits and harms until they are actually invented.
		E. None of the above

2. Buchanan thinks that the goal of new enhancement technologies should be:

		A. To create a super-human race.
		B. To improve the reproductive fitness of individuals.
		C. To control the population of human beings on earth.
		D. To improve the quality of lives of individuals.
		E. None of the above.

3. According to Buchanan, the main concern over biomedical enhancements coming in through the back door is that:

		A. They may be smuggled into the country.
		B. They may be available only to a small minority of wealthy individuals who can afford them.
		C. They may fail to receive the kind of study and attention that front-door enhancements would receive.
		D. They may undermine our human nature.
		E. They might be corrupting of otherwise good people’s characters by disposing them to illegal activity.

4. According to the master engineer argument, genetic enhancements are morally wrong because:

		A. We should not attempt to genetically enhance people until the scientific community attains the status of a master engineer, metaphorically speaking.
		B. They represent a drive for mastery.
		C. There will never be a master scientist or engineer who can guarantee the safety of genetic enhancements.
		D. Mastery is a vice, not a virtue, and enhancements aim at mastery.
		E. Evolution is like a master engineer, so any genetic modification to ourselves will be for the worse.

5. By Pleistocene hangovers, Buchanan means:

		A. Biological traits that we have today that are the result of selective pressures that existed thousands of years ago but no longer today.
		B. Biological traits that we have today but would not have had in the environment that existed thousands of years ago.
		C. Biological traits that are better in terms of quality of life to have today, even though the selective pressures that allowed for those traits do not exist today.
		D. Selective pressures toward perfection that feel like a hangover because perfection is impossible.
		E. Selective pressures that exist today that tend to push human beings away from the pursuit of perfection.

6. According to one anti-enhancement argument, genetic enhancements threaten to change human nature and that is a serious moral concern because it is:

		A. Unnecessary.
		B. Unnatural.
		C. Unfair.
		D. Undermining of our genetic redundancy.
		E. Underwhelming.

7. According to the extreme-connectedness principle:

		A. It is an extreme position to think that human beings are strongly connected to each other.
		B. It is an extreme position to think that human beings are not strongly connected to each other.
		C. Given expected inequalities of access to biomedical enhancements, the social connectedness of people will be put under extreme strain.
		D. Various aspects of a human being are closely tied to one another.
		E. Various aspects of a human being are not closely tied to one another.

8. Buchanan believes that a change to our human nature:

		A. Would threaten to destroy our evaluative anchor or what we think of as morally good for human beings.
		B. Would threaten to destroy what we take to be a virtuous character.
		C. Would be undesirable because it would threaten to bring about a post-human, apocalyptic phase in our existence.
		D. May or may not improve the quality of our lives depending upon the details of the change in question.
		E. Must be avoided because it would threaten to destroy the essence of who we are.

9. Buchanan thinks that a reasonable understanding of the concept of human nature is one that is:

		A. Part nature, part nurture.
		B. All nature, no nuture.
		C. No nature, all nurture.
		D. No nature, and no nurture.
		E. None of the above.

10. Buchanan thinks that inequalities in access to biomedical enhancements would be:

		A. Morally undesirable, irrespective of the consequences.
		B. Morally desirable, irrespective of the consequences.
		C. Either morally desirable or undesirable, depending on the consequences.
		D. A violation of a moral duty to fairness.
		E. Not a morally relevant consideration.

11. Concerning the risks associated with new biomedical technologies, Buchanan argues that:

		A. We should embrace a single master risk-reducing principle.
		B. We should embrace a single precautionary principle.
		C. We should focus only on the possible or expected benefits of future biomedical technologies.
		D. We should embrace a number of common-sense risk-reducing principles.
		E. We should insist on an absolute prohibition of the development and use of new biomedical technologies.

12. Concerning the costs (to consumers) of biomedical enhancements, Buchanan thinks that:

		A. Higher costs will tend to bring about a better quality of enhancements.
		B. This will not be unfair to relatively poorer individuals because they will be allowed to volunteer as guinea pigs.
		C. Costs are not an issue when it comes to something as socially valuable as biomedical enhancements.
		D. Some consumers, who could not have otherwise afforded enhancements, will be able to enter enhancement-lotteries that will at least give them a chance at enhancement.
		E. Costs will decrease over time.

13. In response to one of Michael Sandels arguments against the moral permissibility of biomedical enhancements, Buchanan claims that:

		A. We are unjustified in supposing that the allocation of enhancements will be unfair.
		B. We are unjustified in supposing that the allocation of enhancements will be efficient.
		C. We are unjustified in supposing that everyone (or even most) will be motivated by a drive for perfection.
		D. We are unjustified in supposing that everyone will even have an identifiable motive to enhance.
		E. We are unjustified in supposing that enhancements will ever bring about a state of human perfection.

14. Which is not one of the framing assumptions that surrounds the biomedical-enhancement issue:

		A. Biomedical enhancements are personal goods.
		B. Biomedical enhancements are public goods.
		C. Biomedical enhancements are market goods.
		D. The government will have a limited role, confined to the regulation of the market for biomedical enhancements.
		E. Biomedical enhancements are a zero-sum game.

15. In response to the argument that biomedical enhancements threaten to undermine a proper appreciation for what we have, Buchanan says that such appreciation:

		A. Is a virtue and we should be cautious about new technologies that threaten to undermine it.
		B. Is not a virtue, so there is no worry of enhancement technologies threatening to undermine it.
		C. Is a vice because it tends to make us lazy and unproductive.
		D. Is a vice because we have a moral duty to continually strive to improve ourselves.
		E. Is a character trait that we want other people to have, but not ourselves to have.

16. The fear over love drugs is that they may create or sustain relationships that are not:

		A. Lasting.
		B. Authentic.
		C. To have supposed to happen.
		D. Illegitimate.
		E. Illegal.

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