Transhumanism is a word that describes anything which favors the development of innovative technologies for the improvement of human health, both physical and mental. Throughout the past decade, this movement of transhumanism has started to take course throughout the world. Biotechnologies are one subset of the transhumanist movement that have consistently shown great promise to benefit society as a whole. Ideas surrounding the beneficial factors of transhumanism in relation to physical and mental disabilities have become widespread throughout our society. In opposition to the idea that society should cure itself of its flaws, people both with and without disabilities argue that they are still functioning members of society, despite being disabled. The premise of their argument focuses on the idea of morphological freedom, in Anders Sandberg’s writing in, “Morphological Freedom -- Why We not just Want it, but Need it”, defines this as the right to either change or not change one’s self. Sandberg’s writing in, “Morphological Freedom -- Why We not just Want it, but Need it”, argues that people have the right to not change, in terms of need and want, how it applies to the future of our society and also how it will influence the future of health care.
Sandberg, has attended and presented various discussions on the benefits of developing technologies for human health in terms of various enhancements and modifications of the human body (Sandberg, 2001). In this article a summary of one of his presentations, he provides information related with morphological freedom that is essential to society if technology will become the common treatment in future health care for physical disabilities. The purpose of his writing is to explain the natural rights that people in society have when it comes to personal physical change. Sandberg, attempts to reach out to those in society who
References: Sandberg, A. (2001, June 24). Morphological freedom -- why we not just want it, but need it. Retrieved from http://http://nada.kth.se/~asa/Texts/MorphologicalFreedom.htm