Throughout time, improving upon creations and ways of life is an occurrence that is becoming very common.  By definition, human enhancement aims to improve upon a natural, healthy state of being, which is not to be confused with therapeutic practices that aim to improve upon a stat of injury or malnutrition.  Examples of human enhancement include everything from energy drinks to performance enhancing drugs.  Anything that improves that improves the natural state of being can be considered human enhancement.  Human enhancement can be beneficial and should be advocated for on an equal or greater level as therapeutic practices and methods because of the potential to initiate change in the realm of health and other fields.  Likewise, human enhancement should be endorsed in professional sports and should also receive the appropriate funding to further benefit life expectancy throughout our population.

A popular pastime enjoyed by the younger generation in this day and age is physical activity.  Some choose to do physical activity in order to keep their body in top physical condition, others make a career out of performing physical activities professionally, while others simply enjoy a good workout.  For those who perform physical activities such as professional sports, exposure to human enhancement methods such as performance enhancing drugs is much more of a commonality than for someone who attends the gym on a weekly basis. Naturally, once the human body is at a high level of fitness, it becomes increasingly difficult for one to see the results of their physical activity which in some cases may lead to discouragement and self-doubt.  It is in these cases that we see people start to shift towards human enhancement methods such as performance enhancing drugs, looking to further enhance their physical condition.  For example, a talented athlete may experience a slump where they are not producing at the level that they are expected to, causing them to search for the most time and effort efficient way to boost their performance once again.  

In the world of professional sports, this act of "doping" is seen as morally wrong and is not tolerated in any major sporting league.  Those who are opposed to human enhancement in sports argue that allowing such practices to exist will compromise the integrity of sports as a whole.  " ... in ancient times, sport was about finding 'the strongest, fastest, or most skilled man'" (Bostrom).  As humans evolve, so too do the sports that are played and the manner in which they are performed.  Over the years, it has become evident that athletes are becoming stronger, faster, and more intelligent.  In order to harbor any major success in the world of professional sports, one must be in a top physical and mental condition for an extended period of time.  Sometimes the physical toll that professional sports takes on the human body is to much, yet it is something that the human population loves to see.  Crowds beg for big hits and collisions, therefore in order to continue to provide for such demand, performance enhancing drugs should be advocated for in the professional sports.  Performance enhancing drugs such as steroids is one of the many ways that human enhancement effects the sports world.  Those opposed to performance enhancing drugs in sports will argue that only those athletes with the funds to afford such pharmaceuticals will be the only ones reaping the benefits, leaving everyone else on an uneven playing field.  This can be avoided however if major sporting leagues utilized their revenue to make these performance enhancing drugs available to all athletes from all over the globe.  Providing equal access for everyone throughout the sporting world allows for the playing field to remain level, while also maintaining the level of entertainment at a rate worthy enough the please the population.  "The use of such a drug would be compatible with the ancient ideal of using sport to identify 'the strongest, fastest, or most skilled' competitor; it would simply be the case that the competitor in question is 10% stronger, faster, or more skilled than they would be without the use of the drug" (Stock).  Stock demonstrates with this quote that allowing performance enhancing drugs to exist in the professional sports world would increase the entertainment level, satisfying the human population. 

As much as the human population enjoys the entertainment brought to them by professional sports, one must not forget that the athletes performing for the entertainment of the masses also have a stake in their physical well being.  Professional sports can have a long lasting, gruesome effect on the human body.  Constant head collisions as well as excessive use of the joints can lead to a future of pain that in some cases can be very difficult for even the strongest athletes to deal with.  In these cases, human enhancement has the ability to provide athletes with pharmaceuticals that ease the pain and allow for quicker recovery time.  This allows the athlete to maintain a competitive level of fitness while limiting the amount of time he is not able to perform physical activity.  

For human enhancement to have an impact on the sports world through performance enhancing drugs, said pharmaceuticals must become a normal part of the sporting world.  This stance however faces stiff opposition from sports fans as well as the Worldwide Anti-Doping Agency (WADA).  Sports fans would generally react in a negative way if the integrity of a long loved pastime is soiled with "doping".

Compiling all of these claims together results in evidence that supports the claim that human enhancement, through performance enhancing drugs, should be a common practice in the sporting world.  Testing the limits of the human body is something that should be advocated for through performance enhancing drugs if the human race is to continue developing.  Those opposed to human enhancement being a part of the professional sports world will argue that these practices will jeopardize the integrity of sport as a whole, however this can be combated by allowing athletes at all levels equal access to the same performance enhancing drugs.  

Steering away from the sports world, in order for human enhancement to gain support from the general population, evidence must be presented that it can be beneficial to all, not just those that wear a jersey for a living.  As research and experimentation continues, it is becoming evident that human enhancement, through medical procedures and pharmaceutical, has the ability to increase the life expectancy of the human race. Throughout many years of research and development, information about the human body and what effects it both physically and mentally has surfaced, allowing general life expectancy to rise.  In the past, access to the knowledge about these diseases had not yet been discovered, thus resulting in little to no treatment when one got sick from a deadly disease.  Because of the lack of access to this knowledge about diseases, the average life expectancy during this time period was a mere 20-34 years (Parens).  Naturally, the human body begins to adapt with the more types of environments and surroundings it encounters.  This adaptation has allowed for life expectancy to gradually grow on its own, however most of the growth in general life expectancy should be credited to improved vaccinations as well as medical procedures that allow us to fight off injuries and diseases.  Life expectancy at the moment is estimated at around 81-85 years. As stated earlier, though life expectancy has gradually grown on its own, human enhancement has provided a glimpse into the future of expanding the human life expectancy by more than every imagined (Bostrom).

Medical procedures as well as pharmaceuticals are the methods in which human enhancement impacts the human life expectancy rate. Just increasing general life expectancy is not all that human enhancement is limited to.  Human enhancement also has the potential to eventually be able to slow and/or reverse the again process entirely (Bostrom).  Even full on support and acceptance of human enhancement can only take the possibilities so far.  Much more work is required and even eliminating heart disease and cancer would only increase life expectancy by eight or nine years (Bostrom).  In order to completely optimize life expectancy, human enhancement must slow down or completely halt the ageing process.  The ageing process alone is the ultimate cause of death in most industrialized nations (Jha).  Given the proper support, scientist would be able to develop methods that alter genes or pharmaceuticals that would lead to a large spike in the life expectancy estimate.  These strides in human enhancement could lead to the permanent erase of genetically occurring diseases, reducing the amount of heartache that families have to endure as well as the pain endured by the individual experiencing such diseases. 

From a medical standpoint, increasing the life expectancy of humans through the use of human enhancement seems like a no brainer, yet opposition would state that increasing the life expectancy of the human race would be a waste of our medical efforts.  Those opposed to human enhancement being used to increase life expectancy support this claim by stating that an increase in life span would result in humans living separate, distinct lives, rather than one cohesive one (Heller).  Living a life of boredom and emptiness is the result that the opposition to human enhancement feel will occur if it is given the proper support.  While there is some truth in this statement, knowing that one has a much longer time to live would generally result in a change in mindset throughout the population.  If people are given more time to live from the beginning, goals that, with an average life expectancy, may seem out of reach, now seem much more feasible.  Simply because those opposed to human enhancement being used to increase life expectancy is morally wrong, does not qualify them to judge someone else on the validity of their state of being (DeGrazia).  There is a ethical principal that states that people should be allowed to live whatever lifestyle they choose as long as they are not causing harm to the common good which should be kept under consideration when debating on whether or not to advocate for human enhancement being used to increase life expectancy.  Allowing everyone to have access to pharmaceuticals and medical procedures that could effect our lives drastically may result in a problem similar to the current welfare system in the United States.  There is a lot of opposition that feels it has become far to easy for most anyone to receive welfare benefits and fear that the same would happen with any system put in place in order to provide access to human enhancement methods.  Learning from prior experiences would be the best way to combat this opposition, developing a thorough process that must be completed in order for any human enhancement benefits to be acquired.   

As previously stated, human enhancement is not two or three different methods.  Human enhancement can be anything from energy drinks to health warnings on cigarette boxes (Bostrom).  Many items that humans use on a daily basis prolong life, or at least enhance it in some way, shape, or form.  Those opposed to human enhancement as a whole fail to realize that without it, much of their everyday lives would change.  No more medicine, medical machines, or surgeries.  All of it enhances our lives and without human enhancement none of it would be possible.  Steering back toward the human body, it is evident that the world around us is continuously changing and as a human race, adaptability is a major key to success. 

Arguably, a major issue that the opposition have with using human enhancement to increase life expectancy include the fear of over population.  The general population of the world gains around 75 million new lives annually and allowing humans to extend their life span would lead to an over crowded earth with an insufficient amount of unrenewable resources.  This increase in the population could lead to a larger work force which is has to potential to be beneficial for many different industries.  Another major issue that rises when debating human enhancement being used to increase life expectancy is competition.  With more people available to fill a certain position or job, it will become increasingly difficult to attain a well paying job.  Although human enhancement may allow us to prolong life expectancy, it does not necessarily mean that more people would be born.  Studies show that women are more commonly putting off child birth to further pursue their careers and establish a sense of financial stability in case they do have plans to have a family in the future (Lin). 

Gaining support for human enhancement can be a daunting task but it most certainly is not an impossible one. One attribute that established medical practices have that human enhancement lacks is clear, consistent results.  People will naturally feel more comfortable investing money and trust into medical practices that have been proven to produce results at a guaranteed rate.  Because human enhancement has not been given nearly as much support as it needs to flourish, people are skeptical to dive into the wondrous possibilities that human enhancement has to offer through a multitude of practices.  Many will feel that although human enhancement proposes ideas that could be greatly beneficial to life as a whole, the lack of hard evidence that it could be successful will naturally force people to learn toward supporting medical advancements and technologies that have been proven to work. 

Human enhancement has the potential to produce ground breaking work that at one point or another seemed to be out of reach.  Although those who are against human enhancement will argue that enhancing human life will only lead to meaningless lives where on has no reason to continue on after accomplishing all they wish to accomplish, overpopulation where a growing work force becomes more competitive, as well as financial stress among nations, extraordinary goals are still on the horizon.  Providing human enhancement with the proper support allows for us as humans to provide our children and future generations with a better world to live in.  Goals once deemed impossible now have a chance of becoming reality, forcing everyone to stop ignoring to relevance of human enhancement. 

