Implementing a responsible, research and innovation framework for human enhancement according to human rights: the right to bodily integrity and the rise of ‘enhanced societies’

Abstract

Recently, attempts to shape the Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) model according to human rights have been made by scholars (including by Ronald Leenes and his co-authors, see (2017) 9 LIT 1). Taking up this challenge, this article applies a version of the RRI framework, shaped by human rights, to the field of human enhancement. It does so in order to respond to the following question: what guidance can we derive from Europe's human rights system for the responsible development of performance-enhancing technologies? In this context, given the special link between performance-enhancing modifications and the human body, analysis of the right to bodily integrity shows that it is possible to build a human right as the ‘normative anchor point’ for the governance of human enhancement technologies. Drawing on both the European Convention on Human Rights (together with the jurisprudence of the Strasbourg Court) and the Oviedo Convention, it is argued that Europe's regime of human rights can efficaciously tackle the challenge of future ‘enhanced societies’–where the ECHR is not conclusive, the Oviedo Convention is decisive for solving hard cases related to human enhancement.