When do we switch from “repair” to “increase”? From when can we consider that a treatment provided is not intended to treat but to improve performance, which is all in all interesting, but far from being essential or completely natural? This is essentially the whole issue of transhumanism, a theme addressed by Professor Jean-François Mattéi, former Minister of Health during the last meeting of the Nice-Matin Health Hub; an event led by Nancy Cattan, head of the health service, and organized in partnership with the Alpes-Maritimes Departmental Council, which awarded the prizes for its 13th Call for health projects that same evening.
The opportunity to bring together hospital, liberal but also associative and other actors around a common reflection on ethics. Because it must remain at all costs at the heart of medical work. A wishful thinking?
“The human species has always felt the temptation to improve the qualities of the beings that compose it to make them more efficient”recalls Professor Mattéi in the preamble, citing many examples from mythology, “from Prometheus wanting to make man the equal of the gods to Gilgamesh in search of immortality”. ‘Cause it’s an old dream that of “to go beyond the limits of the human condition. This dream is indeed that of the augmented man”.
Therefore, the former minister warns: “to improve the qualities of human beings in society, two strategies of selection and elimination have been used as far as history allows us to verify, namely eugenics and genocide”. And if they “have been condemned, we can see that the temptation persists”. And Professor Mattéi cites as an example the development of prenatal and preimplantation diagnostic techniques, the sequencing of one’s own genome before procreation…
A series of dead ends
Therefore, he warns: “with the temptation of meliorism for man, everyone understands that if we can replace a sick gene with a normal gene to cure, it becomes just as possible to replace a normal gene with a gene allowing better performance. genetic improvement of human beings could then bring us openly into the era of announced transhumanism. A step would be taken and the intervention would change in nature. In complete rupture with the initial medical vocation, it would respond to the specific request of a ‘artificial’ improvement under the provision of a service.”
Professor Mattéi therefore wished to warn, listing several dead ends to transhumanism among which, “the excessively exclusive role attributed to genes”the economic aspects, its “elitist and narcissistic conception”or “the absolute primacy of technologies erected into a way of thinking”. The exchanges were then nourished with the room before moving on to the award ceremony for the CD06 Call for projects, an initiative widely welcomed by Professor Mattéi.
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2.3 million euros for 20 health projects
The Alpes-Maritimes Departmental Council received the winners of its 13th Call for Health projects at the Palais des Rois Sardes. This year, no less than 20 projects caught the interest of the jury chaired by Clara Ducord, director of Cancéropôle PACA. The objective of the maralpine community is to promote the development of innovative projects, carried out by researchers, doctors and associations from the 06. It is also a way of highlighting the work and the quality of the teams in the area.
Among the winners, twelve projects are linked to the themes of cancer screening and treatment; treatment of neurodegenerative diseases and disability; and new digital technologies e-health and artificial intelligence at the service of health. On these same subjects, five technical innovation projects presented by the Nice University Hospital were also selected. CD 06 also wanted to support 3 projects related to research against Covid-19.
If a total of 2.3 million euros will be distributed this year, since the launch of calls for health projects, more than 34.8 million have been invested to support 266 projects.
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