Biomedical Life Extension Technologies in a Soteriological Perspective (Social and Spiritual Risks)

Abstract

The article analyzes a number of problematic complexes related to the assessment and prediction of social and spiritual risks of using biomedical life extension technologies. To date, an essential part of the broad transhumanistic trend is the identification of technological approaches to solving the problem of increasing human life expectancy. This task, which replaced the task of immediate postponement of death that existed in traditional society, within the framework of the transhumanist concept and the corresponding ideological movement, has significant potential, and also influences the political, economic, social and spiritual spheres of society, setting the vectors of their development. At the same time, the uncontrolled development of the technological aspect of medicine, not provided with an assessment of existing social and spiritual risks, can lead to negative consequences associated with economic stratification, slowing down the circulation of elites and the loss of humanity’s idea of itself as a unique Divine creation. The task of assessing and predicting the consequences of using biomedical life extension technologies is interdisciplinary and can be solved within the framework of various natural, philosophical, and socio-political disciplines, among which Christian theology occupies an important place (in particular, the doctrine of sin, anthropology, ethics, as well as patristic theology). The main conclusion of the article should be considered the thesis that the duration of human life, from the standpoint of Christian morality, is not a criterion of its righteousness, since the assessment of human life, as evidenced by the Sacred Tradition, should be based solely on its content and modality. This fact determines the Christian attitude to biomedical life extension technologies: they are not good or evil in themselves, but potentially contain risks associated with the listed social consequences, as well as their impact on the spiritual life of a person.

Keywords

• transhumanism
• posthumanism
• risks
• biomedical technologies
• humanistic anthropology