Редактирование: Criticism of transhumanism (раздел)

== The view that transhumanism would deprive humanity of ultimate meaning ==
''Main: [[Deathism]]''

Some critics refer, not to the risk of wars, social disruptions, or other existential threats, caused by technological advances, but to the loss of features which are held to be essential for the best qualities of human life. For example, [http://www.thenewatlantis.com/publications/ageless-bodies-happy-souls Leon Kass, 2003] makes the following argument:

<blockquote>
A flourishing human life is... ours only because we are born, age, replace ourselves, decline, and die — and know it. It is a life of aspiration, made possible by and born of experienced lack, of the disproportion between the transcendent longings of the soul and the limited capacities of our bodies and minds. It is a life that stretches towards some fulfillment to which our natural human soul has been oriented... It is a life not of better genes and enhancing chemicals but of love and friendship, song and dance, speech and deed, working and learning, revering and worshipping.
</blockquote>

This criticism holds that it is our impending personal decline and death that provides the context for our lives to truly flourish. Without that prospect, there would be less scope for (to use Kass's words) "revering and worshipping". These critics therefore seek to oppose any transhumanist initiative to decrease the likelihood of eventual personal decline and death.

Transhumanists can reply that it is a matter of conjecture whether the prospect of decline and death is needed to provide a fully meaningful life. Transhumanists see no reason to reach that conclusion. On the contrary, transhumanists see that greater health and longer lifetimes are likely to increase many of the positives mentioned by Kass as being fundamentally important to life: "love and friendship, song and dance, speech and deed, working and learning".

Transhumanists are willing to allow critics the option for their own lives to suffer personal decline and death, if that is what they truly wish for themselves. However, that outcome should not be extended to apply to people who lack that belief. Instead, transhumanists assert the moral choice of self-determination: their desire for improved health and lifespan, for themselves and their loved ones, should override any desire by critics to limit and constrain them.