Ethical issues in moral and social enhancement

part explained by a sex difference in the propensity for concern with others, 
which results in putting others’ needs before one’s own. Moreover, although 
the participants in Batson’s experiments on help and empathy seem to genuinely 
care about whether their help actually addresses the other’s need, the negative 
effects on their well-being might be exacerbated by the fact of feeling bad if their 
efforts were not helpful – even through no fault of their own (Batson and Weeks, 
1996; Batson et al., 1988). 
Caring and giving can be stressful, difficult, and draining and concern for others 
can sometimes overtake people’s efforts at self-care. Professionals who work in 
human service occupations can suffer from mental and physical health problems 
that have been associated with the strain of giving as a full-time occupation (Figley, 
1995). These problems are common in medical professionals, psychologists, social 
workers, lawyers, and corrections professionals. Consistent with these notions, 
‘
compassion fatigue
’ is defined as the experience of ‘stress resulting from helping 
or wanting to help a traumatized or suffering person’ (Figley, 1995, p. 7). 
Moreover, Klimecki and Singer (2011) argued that high empathy specifically can 
lead to professional burnout. They argued that ‘burnout in caregivers and empathic 
[or personal] distress are characterized by the experience of negative emotions, 
which lead to a self-oriented response with the desire to alleviate one’s own 
distress; both have negative effects on health’ (Klimecki and Singer, 2011, p. 285). 
Personal distress involves feelings of being worried, perturbed, or upset, 
for oneself
, 
and can lead to behaviours oriented on alleviating one’s own distress, rather than 
distress of others.
Stanislaw Lem, a science-fiction author did not need the recent neuroscientific and 
psychological evidence to predict the possible effects of the Rifkin – Baron-Cohen 
– Savulescu and Persson proposal. In his suitably humorous account, he takes the 
‘more empathy’ proposal to its logical conclusion. In 
Altruizine; or, a True Account 
of How Bonhomius the Hermitic Hermit Tried to Bring About Universal Happiness 
and What Came of It
, a short story in Lem’s 
The Cyberiad 
(1974)
,
altruizine is a 
drug that duplicates in others who are nearby whatever sensations, emotions and 
mental states one may experience, supposedly leading to ‘Brotherhood, 

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48 
Cooperation and Compassion in any society… since … [s]hould [one] suffer any 
hurt, they will rush to help at once’ (p. 272). Allow me to quote at length Lem’s 
description of the effects of the brilliant invention:
‘At breakfast time, wandering the streets in a daze, I came upon a tearful 
multitude that chased an old woman in a black veil, hurling stones after 
her. It so happened that this was the widow of one much-esteemed 
cobbler, who had passed away the day before and was to be buried that 
morning: the poor woman's inconsolable grief had so exasperated her 
neighbors, and the neighbors' neighbors, that, quite unable to comfort 
her in any way, they were driving her from the town. This woeful sight 
lay heavy on my heart and again I returned to my hotel, only to find it 
now in flames. It seems the cook had burnt her finger in the soup, 
whereupon her pain caused a certain captain, who was at that very 
moment cleaning his blunderbuss on the top floor, to pull the trigger, 
inadvertently slaying his wife and four children on the spot. Everyone 
remaining in the hotel now shared the captain's despair; one 
compassionate individual, wishing to put an end to the general suffering, 
doused everyone he could find with kerosene and set them all on fire. 
They were discussing it, the scoundrels: apparently the newlyweds' 
performance had fallen short of their expectations. 
Meanwhile each of these former vicarious grooms carried a club and 
drove off any sufferer who dared to cross his path. I felt I should die 
from sorrow and shame, yet still sought a man—but one would do—
who might a little lessen my remorse. Questioning various persons on 
the street, I at last obtained the address of a prominent philosopher, a 
true champion of brotherhood and universal tolerance, and eagerly 
proceeded to that place, confident I should find his dwelling surrounded 
by great numbers of the populace. But alas! Only a few cats purred 
softly at the door, basking in the aura of good will the wise man did so 
abundantly exude—several dogs, however, sat at a distance and waited 
for them, salivating. … 

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49 
As I stood there, two men approached. One looked me straight in the 
eye as he swung and smote the other full force in the nose. I stared in 
amazement, neither grabbing my own nose nor shouting with pain, 
since, as a robot, I could not feel the blow, and that proved my undoing, 
for these were secret police and they had employed this ruse precisely to 
unmask me. Handcuffed and hauled off to jail, I confessed everything, 
trusting that they would take into consideration my good intentions, 
though half the city now lay in ashes. But first they pinched me 
cautiously with pincers, and then, fully satisfied it produced no ill 
effects whatever on themselves, jumped upon me and began most 
savagely to batter and break every plate and filament in my weary 
frame. Ah, the torments I endured, and all because I wished to make 
them happy! At long last, what remained of me was stuffed down a 
cannon and shot into cosmic space, as dark and serene as always. In 
flight I looked back and saw, albeit in a fractured fashion, the spreading 
influence of Altruizine—spreading, since the rivers and streams were 
carrying the drug farther and farther. I saw what happened to the birds 
of the forest, the monks, goats, knights, villagers and their wives, 
roosters, maidens and matrons, and the sight made my last tubes crack 
for woe, and in this state did I finally fall, O kind and noble sir, not far 
from your abode, cured once and for all of my desire to render others 
happy by revolutionary means…’ (Cyberiad, 1974, p. 281) 
 
I have argued that the effects of empathy are complex and may fail to do much 
good for the individual, the subjects of one’s empathy and the common good. 
Admittedly, I have brought forward evidence selectively focusing on the harmful 
effects of high levels of empathy. I have aimed to provide a counter-weight to 
arguments about the beneficial, pro-social and morally enhancing value of empathy 
increase. This is sufficient for the purpose of the argument. However, I do not claim 
that