Human Enhancement
Technology can enhance our physical, cognitive, emotional and moral abilities. Implants, drugs, genetic modification or interaction with machines can have both temporary and permanent effects. This is challenging the boundaries between health and illness, treatment and enhancement, normality and abnormality.
Join our public consultation on 11-25 January!
New technologies challenge our notions of what is ethical. The SIENNA project has developed stakeholder informed proposals for the ethical development, deployment and use of new and emerging technologies. Between 11-25 January we invite you to a public consultation of a group of documents with concrete ethical guidance for human genetics and genomics, human enhancement, artificial intelligence and robotics! Patient or carer? Don't miss the opportunity to join a webinar on our proposal for operational guidance for ethics self-assessment of reserach in genetics and genomics on 18 January!
Genetics & Genomics
Public consultation 11-25 January

Give feedback on our operational guidance for ethical self-assessment of research! Are you a patient or carer? Join our webinar on 18 January!
Human Enhancement
Public consultation 11-25 January

Give input to our ethical guidelines and proposed body for oversight, assessment of moral ans social consequences, information and advice.
AI & Robotics
Public consultation 11-25 January

Give input to our proposals for ethics by design & ethics of use approaches, industry education and buy-in, education, training and awareness raising and ethics as attention to context.
Human Enhancement: Impact on society
Education and exercise can enhance our abilities. So can technology: in the form of implants, drugs, genetic enhancement or machines. This comes with ethical, legal and social challenges. As a society, we need to discuss the ethical questions of what is normal, what is natural, what is moral and what can be permitted.
Where do we draw the line between health and illness? Cosmetic surgery for someone suffering mild social distress is considered elective, and therefore an enhancement. The same procedure for the victim of an accident is considered a treatment. Enhancing humans challenges values such as autonomy, authenticity, dignity, justice, fairness, and our understanding of human nature. A device designed to improve the communication skills of the disabled could become a highly-profitable new gadget for everyone. If there is a drug that can boost the feeling of love a parent has for their child, should we consider making it a mandatory treatment for parents who simply don't feel that love?
The SIENNA project will address these issues in a structured way. Our results will help research to meet ethical standards, and suggest ways to design and distribute products in a responsible way.
Human Genetics & Genomics

Technologies to sequence or edit DNA can become powerful tools to diagnose and treat diseases, yet they also raise important ethical, legal and social issues.
Artificial Intelligence & Robotics

We interact with robots, smart devices, intelligent software, prosthetics and implants. We can benefit enormously from interacting with machines. But there are significant ethical challenges.
Ethical impact of technology

We use a model for ethical impact assessment that takes technological conceptualisation, socio-economic and ethical impact into account.