{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,11]],"date-time":"2026-07-11T02:59:12Z","timestamp":1783738752285,"version":"3.55.0"},"reference-count":72,"publisher":"SAGE Publications","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,4,13]],"date-time":"2026-04-13T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1776038400000},"content-version":"tdm","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/journals.sagepub.com\/page\/policies\/text-and-data-mining-license"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["journals.sagepub.com"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Linacre Q"],"abstract":"<jats:p>\n                    Drawing on the philosophical and scientific coherence of the Instruction\n                    <jats:italic toggle=\"yes\">Dignitas Personae<\/jats:italic>\n                    , promulgated in 2008 by the then Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, this essay examines the technological manipulation of the human body, focusing on human enhancement. It explores why certain biomedical interventions, ranging from gene editing to pharmacological treatments like statins, raise important bioethical and metaphysical questions about the nature of health, the goals of medicine, and the limits of human self-transformation. The argument begins by analyzing the pharmacological profile of statins to clarify their actual therapeutic role, thereby challenging their classification as enhancement tools. Then, by advocating for a robust theory of medicine grounded in Aristotelian\u2013Thomistic principles, it reaffirms the therapy\u2013enhancement distinction as one of differentiation, not opposition. Applying classical hylomorphism, the essay distinguishes between\n                    <jats:italic toggle=\"yes\">perfective<\/jats:italic>\n                    enhancement, which aligns with human nature, and\n                    <jats:italic toggle=\"yes\">technocratic<\/jats:italic>\n                    enhancement, which seeks to transcend it. This perspective enables a reframing of the paradigm of statins, integrating biomedical data, metaphysical realism, and a rational theory of medicine to argue that true human flourishing requires fidelity to the limits inscribed in nature. Ultimately, the central question addressed herein concerns the moral licitness of enhancement, which is permissible only insofar as it is ordered toward the perfection of the human being, not its indiscriminate transformation.\n                  <\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1177\/00243639261421887","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,4,13]],"date-time":"2026-04-13T14:34:02Z","timestamp":1776090842000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1177\/sage-journals-update-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":1,"title":["Perfective and Technocratic Enhancement: An Aristotelian\u2013Thomistic Inquiry Into Contemporary Bioethical Challenges"],"prefix":"10.1177","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-9004-1022","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Maria Antonietta","family":"Castaldi","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Azienda Ospedaliera Universitaria San Giovanni di Dio e Ruggi d\u2019Aragona"},{"name":"Department of Medicine and Surgery \u201cSchola Medica Salernitana,\u201d University of Salerno, Fisciano, Italy"},{"name":"Pontifical Athenaeum Regina Apostolorum"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Fabio","family":"Gragnano","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Studio Filosofico Domenicano, Affiliated with the Faculty of Philosophy of the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas in Rome, Bologna, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"179","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,4,13]]},"reference":[{"key":"e_1_3_4_2_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1136\/bmj.f6123"},{"key":"e_1_3_4_3_1","first-page":"469","volume-title":"Encyclopedia of Dairy Sciences","author":"Aherne S. A.","year":"2011","unstructured":"Aherne S. A. 2011. \u201cLow-Density Lipoproteins (LDLs).\u201d In Encyclopedia of Dairy Sciences, edited by Fuquay John W.. 3rd ed, 469\u201374. San Diego: Academic Press.","edition":"3"},{"key":"e_1_3_4_4_1","unstructured":"Aquinas Thomas. Quodlibetal Questions. Forthcoming 2024. Vol. 28. Translated from the Leonine edition by Urban Hannon. Lander WY: Aquinas Institute for the Study of Sacred Doctrine. Accessed March\u2013April 2025. https:\/\/www.aquinas.cc."},{"key":"e_1_3_4_5_1","unstructured":"Aquinas Thomas. Scriptum Super Sententiis [Commentary on the Sentences]. 2018-2026. I Vols. 1\u20132. Translated from the Mandonnet edition by Christopher Decaen. Lander WY; II Vols. 3\u20134. Translated from the Mandonnet edition by Christopher Decaen Dylan Schrader and Beth Mortensen. Lander WY; III Vols. 5\u20136. Translated from the Moos edition by Christopher Decaen and Beth Mortensen. Lander WY; IV Vols. 7\u201310. 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