Health in Prospect - High-tech Medicine, Life Enhancement and the Economy of Hope

Abstract

In this article, high-tech medicine is approached as life enhancement technology. Today, the most advanced medical technology operates on the level of cells and molecules, thus opening unprecedented prospects not only for curing and preventing illness but also for shaping of life itself. Thus, high-tech medicine seems to offer more efficient means to remove the restrictions of physical abilities and to improve and ‘repair’ vital processes. It promises to enhance life. The essay focuses on two aspects of this development. The first issue analysed is the tendency in high-tech medicine to connect medical progress to augmentation of personal choices on health and life improvement. Further, also the economical side is discussed by focusing on the role the patients’ activism in high-tech medical business. The argument of the essay is the following: the power to raise hopes for new cures and better life in people is a crucial characteristic of today’s high-tech medicine. Consequently, it is the people living in such a hope who provides uel for both technological progress and profitseeking in today’s medicine.