Ethical issues in moral and social enhancement

solution
Attribution to self of 
responsibility for 
problem
High
Low 
High 
Moral model
(
High
, 
High
) 
Enlightenment model 
(
High
, 
Low
) 
Low 
Compensatory model 
(
Low
, 
High
) 
Medical model
(
Low
, 
Low
) 
Many arguments concerning medicalization apply equally to medicalization of 
issues such as aging or menopause and moral modification, yet this critique seems 
to be especially important when we are talking about modification in the moral 
sphere. On the one hand, being a moral patient seems to be inimical to moral 
agency and responsibility for one’s moral development and actions. The problem is 
amounted by the proposed involuntary application of moral modification in order to 
make moral agents (e.g. Savulescu and Persson, 2008), but even voluntary use, if 
indeed accompanied by the attitude of ‘outsourcing responsibility and power’ could 
come with negative impacts on moral agency and moral responsibility inherent in 
moral agency. On the other hand, the capacities underlying the ability to be a moral 
agent are capacities like any other and are in principle modifiable both by 
biomedical means and traditional means like practice or education. In fact, a similar 
doubt may apply to the body creating an conjunction of the stance of the 
autonomous agent and the moral patient of both our own and others’ actions – 
while we are in part constituted by our body and the body is a vehicle of our 
agency, we can also be modifying it, thus taking a agential stance towards 
ourselves.
Table. Attribution of Responsibility in Four Models of Helping and Coping. 
Source: Brickman et al. (1982)

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102 
To the extent the medical model necessarily promotes the stance of passivity it 
would undermine moral agency, and the importance of this problem is exacerbated 
when we are talking about MB and aiming at creating better moral agents. 
However, it remains unclear whether medical model necessarily promotes passivity 
and undermines responsibility, or whether the tools that medicine offers can be used 
to empower individuals to take greater responsibility for capacities that they 
previously saw as not under voluntary control. To provide a counterweight for the 
discussion about potentially problematic aspects of medicalization, the next section 
outlines the benefits of medicalization of an issue.