LEGAL REGULATION OF TECHNOLOGICALLY IMPROVED PEOPLE IN THE USA AND CHINA

Abstract

As humanity improves their use of technologies that replace parts of a biological organism with ones containing mechanical or electronic components, it leads to a rise in important issues in law and politics. For example, devices implanted in the body create a new class of people with improved motor and computational abilities. How should law and policy respond when the capabilities of such people exceed those of the general population? Equally important is the following question: what legal rights should be granted to people armed with such technology as they appear more and more like machines and less than a person from a biological point of view? The following legal aspects are of utmost importance: legal rights and responsibilities of cyborgs, regulation of access to neuroprosthetic devices of third parties; limiting the illegal use of the damaging capabilities of cyborgs. This article examines a number of laws and regulations from several US jurisdictions that apply to cyborg technologies with a particular focus on a legal doctrine that applies to neuroprostheses.