Biomedical innovations are making possible the enhancement of human capabilities. There are two philosophical stances on the role that medicine should play in this respect. On the one hand, naturalism rejects every medical intervention that goes beyond preventing and treating disease. On the other hand, welfarism advocates enhancements that foster subjective well-being. We will show that both positions have considerable shortcomings. Consequently, we will introduce a third characterization in which therapies and enhancements can be reconciled with the legitimate objectives of medicine inasmuch as they improve the capabilities that enable the freedom to pursue personal well-being.

生物医学创新使人类能力的提高成为可能。关于医学在这方面应发挥的作用，有两种哲学立场。一方面，自然主义拒绝一切超越预防和治疗疾病的医疗干预。另一方面，福利主义提倡促进主观幸福感的增强。我们将证明这两种立场都有相当大的缺点。因此，我们将介绍第三个特征，其中治疗和增强可以与医学的合法目标相协调，因为它们可以提高能够自由追求个人幸福的能力。