Emerging Therapeutic Enhancement Enabling Health Technologies and Their Discourses: What Is Discussed within the Health Domain?
So far, the very meaning of health and therefore, treatment and rehabilitation is benchmarked to the normal or species-typical body. We expect certain abilities in members of a species; we expect humans to walk but not to fly, but a bird we expect to fly. However, increasingly therapeutic interventi...
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doaj-6d07585cd0c24db58ead6a73ac016e562020-11-25T00:13:43ZengMDPI AGHealthcare2227-90322013-07-0111205210.3390/healthcare1010020Emerging Therapeutic Enhancement Enabling Health Technologies and Their Discourses: What Is Discussed within the Health Domain?Gregor WolbringLucy DiepSophya YumakulovNatalie BallVerlyn LeopatraDean YergensSo far, the very meaning of health and therefore, treatment and rehabilitation is benchmarked to the normal or species-typical body. We expect certain abilities in members of a species; we expect humans to walk but not to fly, but a bird we expect to fly. However, increasingly therapeutic interventions have the potential to give recipients beyond species-typical body related abilities (therapeutic enhancements, TE). We believe that the perfect storm of TE, the shift in ability expectations toward beyond species-typical body abilities, and the increasing desire of health consumers to shape the health system will increasingly influence various aspects of health care practice, policy, and scholarship. We employed qualitative and quantitative methods to investigate among others how human enhancement, neuro/cognitive enhancement, brain machine interfaces, and social robot discourses cover (a) healthcare, healthcare policy, and healthcare ethics, (b) disability and (c) health consumers and how visible various assessment fields are within Neuro/Cogno/ Human enhancement and within the BMI and social robotics discourse. We found that health care, as such, is little discussed, as are health care policy and ethics; that the term consumers (but not health consumers) is used; that technology, impact and needs assessment is absent; and that the imagery of disabled people is primarily a medical one. We submit that now, at this early stage, is the time to gain a good understanding of what drives the push for the enhancement agenda and enhancement-enabling devices, and the dynamics around acceptance and diffusion of therapeutic enhancements.http://www.mdpi.com/2227-9032/1/1/20health consumersocial roboticsbrain machine interfacebrain computer interfaceneuroenhancementcognitive enhancementhuman enhancementhealthcarehealthcare policyhealthcare ethicshealth care ethicsemerging therapeuticstherapeutic enhancementdisabled peoplepeople with disabilitiesassessment |
collection |
DOAJ |
language |
English |
format |
Article |
sources |
DOAJ |
author |
Gregor Wolbring Lucy Diep Sophya Yumakulov Natalie Ball Verlyn Leopatra Dean Yergens |
spellingShingle |
Gregor Wolbring Lucy Diep Sophya Yumakulov Natalie Ball Verlyn Leopatra Dean Yergens Emerging Therapeutic Enhancement Enabling Health Technologies and Their Discourses: What Is Discussed within the Health Domain? Healthcare health consumer social robotics brain machine interface brain computer interface neuroenhancement cognitive enhancement human enhancement healthcare healthcare policy healthcare ethics health care ethics emerging therapeutics therapeutic enhancement disabled people people with disabilities assessment |
author_facet |
Gregor Wolbring Lucy Diep Sophya Yumakulov Natalie Ball Verlyn Leopatra Dean Yergens |
author_sort |
Gregor Wolbring |
title |
Emerging Therapeutic Enhancement Enabling Health Technologies and Their Discourses: What Is Discussed within the Health Domain? |
title_short |
Emerging Therapeutic Enhancement Enabling Health Technologies and Their Discourses: What Is Discussed within the Health Domain? |
title_full |
Emerging Therapeutic Enhancement Enabling Health Technologies and Their Discourses: What Is Discussed within the Health Domain? |
title_fullStr |
Emerging Therapeutic Enhancement Enabling Health Technologies and Their Discourses: What Is Discussed within the Health Domain? |
title_full_unstemmed |
Emerging Therapeutic Enhancement Enabling Health Technologies and Their Discourses: What Is Discussed within the Health Domain? |
title_sort |
emerging therapeutic enhancement enabling health technologies and their discourses: what is discussed within the health domain? |
publisher |
MDPI AG |
series |
Healthcare |
issn |
2227-9032 |
publishDate |
2013-07-01 |
description |
So far, the very meaning of health and therefore, treatment and rehabilitation is benchmarked to the normal or species-typical body. We expect certain abilities in members of a species; we expect humans to walk but not to fly, but a bird we expect to fly. However, increasingly therapeutic interventions have the potential to give recipients beyond species-typical body related abilities (therapeutic enhancements, TE). We believe that the perfect storm of TE, the shift in ability expectations toward beyond species-typical body abilities, and the increasing desire of health consumers to shape the health system will increasingly influence various aspects of health care practice, policy, and scholarship. We employed qualitative and quantitative methods to investigate among others how human enhancement, neuro/cognitive enhancement, brain machine interfaces, and social robot discourses cover (a) healthcare, healthcare policy, and healthcare ethics, (b) disability and (c) health consumers and how visible various assessment fields are within Neuro/Cogno/ Human enhancement and within the BMI and social robotics discourse. We found that health care, as such, is little discussed, as are health care policy and ethics; that the term consumers (but not health consumers) is used; that technology, impact and needs assessment is absent; and that the imagery of disabled people is primarily a medical one. We submit that now, at this early stage, is the time to gain a good understanding of what drives the push for the enhancement agenda and enhancement-enabling devices, and the dynamics around acceptance and diffusion of therapeutic enhancements. |
topic |
health consumer social robotics brain machine interface brain computer interface neuroenhancement cognitive enhancement human enhancement healthcare healthcare policy healthcare ethics health care ethics emerging therapeutics therapeutic enhancement disabled people people with disabilities assessment |
url |
http://www.mdpi.com/2227-9032/1/1/20 |
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