James "J." Hughes Ph.D. teaches health policy, medical ethics and research methods in the Public Policy Program at Trinity College in Hartford Connecticut, and serves as Trinity's Associate Director of Institutional Research and Planning. He also serves as the Executive Director of the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies and produces the weekly public affairs talk show Changesurfer Radio.  Dr. Hughes is the author of Citizen Cyborg: Why Democratic Societies Must Respond to the Redesigned Human of the Future. He is a Fellow of the World Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a member of the Neuroethics Society, the Association of Futurist Leaders, the American Society of Bioethics and Humanities and the Working Group on Ethics and Technology at Yale University. Dr. Hughes speaks on medical ethics, health care policy and future studies worldwide, and appears often radio and television.  Dr. Hughes lives in eastern Connecticut with his wife, the artist Monica Bock, and their two children.

I had an e-mail interview with Dr. James Hughes, here is the dialogue:

Question: A quick question is what kind of argument are you saying with respect to the extending of human life? I realized that you do not think that the argument that human life will be extended 400 years, but then what is the point?
 
Regarding life extension I do believe that we will eventually live very long lives, much longer than 400 years. As to the point, our lives will be as meaningful or pointless as they are now, just a lot longer. Presumably those who see no point in living a long time just won’t.


Question: What about the concept of abortion?

I argue in the book for:

(a) that women's rights to control their own bodies is pretty absolute,
(b) that embryos and fetuses are not "persons" with a right to life, and
(c) that parents and society have an obligation to "procreative beneficence", to ensure that children are providing the best possible opportunities in life.

So that means a strong advocacy for the right to abortion, and a moral obligation to consider an abortion of a disabled fetus.


Question: Is the concept of a birth defect fixable to the point that a persons life would be meaningful even with a disability.

That is an excellent point. The more fixable the disability, the less moral obligation the mother has to abort.


Do you think the government should be funding this, or should in be a system where everyone makes equal wages?

I'm for more equal wages (and more equal power in the workplace) as well as universal guaranteed healthcare access. I think you need both. Social inequality creates problems for people, such as stress, that it is hard for healthcare to fix, even if its universal healthcare.


What about life support? Are there forms of life support that you would or would not support?

If personality is beyond recovery then there is no point in keeping the body alive.

If the personality can be recovered then the question is whether it is cost-effective to keep the person alive until they can be rehabilitated. Given all the other pressing health problems in the world it generally is still not ethical to keep a vegetative person alive in the hopes of rehabilitation.


Thanks for everything Dr. Hughes, great book and continued success in the future.

My pleasure.