TY - CHAP
T1 - Super soldiers (part 1)
T2 - what is military human enhancement?
AU - Lin, Patrick
AU - Mehlman, Maxwell J.
AU - Abney, Keith
AU - Galliott, Jai
PY - 2014
Y1 - 2014
N2 - After World War II, much debate unfolded about the ethical, legal, and social implications of military human enhancement, due in part to Adolf Hitler's war on the "genetically unfit" and the United States military's experimentation with psychedelic drugs such as LSD. Interest in that debate has waxed and waned since the 1940s. However, it would be foolish or perhaps even dangerous to believe that America and its modern allies have abandoned efforts to upgrade service members' bodies and minds to create the "super soldiers" necessary to match the increasing pace of modern warfare and dominate the strengthening militaries of China and North Korea. Slogans such as "be all that you can be and a whole lot more" still reign strong at the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and, according to some military futurists, the so-called "War on Terror" has only proven that military superpowers need a new type of soldier that is independent, network-integrated, and more lethal than ever before. Patterns of public risk perception, military expenditure, and new technological developments suggest that it is now time to re-open or reinvigorate the original debate. The authors' contribution comes in two parts. In this chapter, they provide a brief background to military human enhancement before defining it carefully and exploring the relevant controversies. In the second, they more explicitly examine the relevant legal, operational, and moral challenges posed by these efforts.
AB - After World War II, much debate unfolded about the ethical, legal, and social implications of military human enhancement, due in part to Adolf Hitler's war on the "genetically unfit" and the United States military's experimentation with psychedelic drugs such as LSD. Interest in that debate has waxed and waned since the 1940s. However, it would be foolish or perhaps even dangerous to believe that America and its modern allies have abandoned efforts to upgrade service members' bodies and minds to create the "super soldiers" necessary to match the increasing pace of modern warfare and dominate the strengthening militaries of China and North Korea. Slogans such as "be all that you can be and a whole lot more" still reign strong at the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and, according to some military futurists, the so-called "War on Terror" has only proven that military superpowers need a new type of soldier that is independent, network-integrated, and more lethal than ever before. Patterns of public risk perception, military expenditure, and new technological developments suggest that it is now time to re-open or reinvigorate the original debate. The authors' contribution comes in two parts. In this chapter, they provide a brief background to military human enhancement before defining it carefully and exploring the relevant controversies. In the second, they more explicitly examine the relevant legal, operational, and moral challenges posed by these efforts.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84946125783&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.4018/978-1-4666-6010-6.ch007
DO - 10.4018/978-1-4666-6010-6.ch007
M3 - Chapter
AN - SCOPUS:84946125783
SN - 9781466660106
T3 - Advances in human and social aspects of technology book series
SP - 119
EP - 138
BT - Global issues and ethical considerations in human enhancement technologies
A2 - Thompson, Steven John
PB - IGI Global
CY - Hershey, PA
ER -