Let's end restrictions on science: ASMR medallist

The message from this year's Australian Society for Medical Research medallist, Julian Savulescu, was controversial but clear: we should use science to enhance humans.

"Why not change our biology to reach the optimum that is possible?" Savulescu told the annual ASMR dinner in Sydney. "There is no moral difference between using a drug to enhance mood, for example, and intervention through biology."

Australian-born Savulescu, now a professor of practical ethics at Oxford University, is a strong proponent of cloning and embryonic stem cell research, and believes it should be allowed in Australia. Restrictions imposed on this field impede research, he said, and added that there is a moral imperative to do research because it saves lives -- and stem cell research has the potential to save many lives.

He argued that when eggs are taken from a woman not intending to have children and are used in embryonic stem cell research, the moral status of the embryo is not an issue because the eggs would have perished anyway -- their use in stem cell research makes them a part of a project that is not about having a child.

"There is nothing wrong with engineering our own biology," said Savulescu. "We provide education to our children -- why not drugs, genetics and other enhancements?"

For example, Savulescu said, recent research shows that perfect pitch may be due to one gene. Why not give this gene to your child? he argued. The child does not have to become a musician, but will have a much better appreciation of music.

The same goes for other behaviours, said Savulescu, such as criminality, which, in one Dutch family, was found to be caused by one gene. Selecting this gene out of a child would enable these family members to negate this undesirable behaviour.

"The 21st century will be exciting, frightening and will provide unprecedented opportunities, some of which have frightening prospects," Savulescu said. "Treating and preventing disease is what marks the 20th century, the 21st century will be known for improving wellbeing in other ways."