Biohappiness is the elevation of utility in humans through biological methods, including germline engineering through screening embryos with genes associated with a high level of happiness, or the use of drugs intended to raise baseline levels of happiness. The object is to facilitate the achievement of a state of "better than well."

Proponents of biohappiness include the philosophical abolitionist David Pearce

David Pearce

David Pearce or Dave Pearce may refer to:*David Pearce , Welsh former British heavyweight boxing champion*David Pearce British musician...

, whose goal is to end the suffering of all sentient beings; and the Canadian ethicist Mark Alan Walker

Mark Alan Walker

Mark Alan Walker, Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor of Philosophy at New Mexico State University, where he occupies the Richard L. Hedden Endowed Chair in Advanced Philosophical Studies. Prior to his professorship at NMSU Prof. Walker taught at McMaster University in the department of philosophy and...

. Walker has sought to defend biohappiness on the grounds that happiness ought to be of interest to a wide range of moral theorists; and that hyperthymia, a state of high baseline happiness, is associated with better outcomes in health and human achievement. .

The concept of biohappiness also has its high-profile critics, including Leon Kass

Leon Kass

Leon Richard Kass is an American physician, scientist, educator, and public intellectual, best known as proponent of liberal education via the "Great Books," as an opponent of human cloning and euthanasia, as a critic of certain areas of technological progress and embryo research, and for his...

, who served on the President's Council on Bioethics during the presidency of George W. Bush.

External links

• http://www.hedweb.com/confile.htm David Pearce's homepage
• http://bioethics.gov/reports/beyondtherapy/index.html Beyond Therapy: Biotechnology and the Pursuit of Happiness (The President's Council on Bioethics

Washington, D.C., October 2003).