PERSONS AND HUMANS: REFASHIONING OURSELVES IN A BETTER IMAGE AND LIKENESS

. This article argues that there are neither moral considerations that in principle forbid the development or use of recom‐binant DNA technology, nor grounds to hold that its application is likely to cause more harm than good. A defensible moral position would enjoin a prudent assessment of consequences, rather than an absolute prohibition. The technology may remain controversial because it presupposes the difference between being a person, an entity who can evaluate and manipulate its own biological structure, and human‐ness as a biological structure likely to be the subject of engineering over the long‐range future.