Dissolving Boundaries : Ethical Issues Surrounding Powered Prosthesis from Analyzing the Cybathlon and Advanced Prosthetic Technologies

Abstract

The first Cybathlon will be held in October 2016 and this contest is designed for developing prosthetic technologies. In this study, we analyzed the Cybathlon and from this analysis we researched advanced prosthetic technologies. In addition, we ascertained some ethical issues about post-human beings with prosthetic equipment, which could rehabilitate disabled people and even serve to enhance non-disabled people. Disability is only one of the inconveniences that a person must endure, but everyone has some sort of inconvenience to endure. We found the possibilities of dissolving boundaries between people with disabilities and their able-bodied counterparts through the Cybathlon and prosthetic devices. The features and role of our body itself will be expanded with the help of these future technologies. Engineers, inventors and designers are making better prostheses for disabilities, but these could help not only disabled people but also every non-disabled people. The dominant ethical debates that appear in bioethics and human- related enhancement are reliability, authenticity and autonomy. Reliability and autonomy are the question of being safe and controllable. In this study, we want to raise a question on authenticity: ‘if a person with a powered-prosthesis sets a better record, should we admit it?’