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The moral bioenhancement of psychopaths
  1. Elvio Baccarini,
  2. Luca Malatesti
  1. Department of Philosophy, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Rijeka, Croatia
  1. Correspondence to Prof Elvio Baccarini, Department of Philosophy, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Sveučilisna avenija 4, Rijeka HR 51000, Croatia; ebaccarini{at}ffri.hr

Abstract

We argue that the mandatory moral bioenhancement of psychopaths is justified as a prescription of social morality. Moral bioenhancement is legitimate when it is justified on the basis of the reasons of the recipients. Psychopaths expect and prefer that the agents with whom they interact do not have certain psychopathic traits. Particularly, they have reasons to require the moral bioenhancement of psychopaths with whom they must cooperate. By adopting a public reason and a Kantian argument, we conclude that we can justify to a psychopath being the recipient of mandatory moral bioenhancement because he has a reason to require the application of this prescription to other psychopaths.

  • Behaviour Modification
  • Enhancement
  • Moral Psychology
  • Philosophical Ethics
  • Psychiatry

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Footnotes

  • Funding University of Rijeka Grant 13.04.1.3.06 and Croatian Science Foundation Grant 8071.

  • Competing interests None declared.

  • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.