Cyborgification and the Disabled Body

Abstract

In this thesis, I examine traditional philosophical arguments concerning the disabled body. I contribute to disability theory by focusing on disabled individuals who employ the use of advanced prosthetics, and by looking at the implications of said prosthetics on disabled individuals’ lived experiences and the ideology of disability. I join other thinkers in finding current disability theory inadequate in its attempts to accurately describe disability and aid disabled individuals to flourish and resist discrimination and marginalization. I suggest that advanced prosthetic use by disabled persons results in the overt cyborgification of the disabled body. Furthermore, I suggest that the cyborgification of the disabled body requires us to re-evaluate the binary of ability vs. disability, and requires us to stop essentializing the disabled body as disabled. I suggest therefore, that these new technologies should be considered morally permissible, and respond to possible objections from the standpoints of fairness and from concerns more broadly regarding transhumanism. Ultimately, questions remain as to any regulatory schemes that should possibly be put in place regarding advanced prosthetics to either limit or promote access to advanced prosthetic technologies for various groups, and to what degree disabled persons should be able to draw on medical resources to access advanced prosthetics.