Maurizio Balistreri

Maurizio Balistreri
University of Tuscia | Tuscia · Department of Linguistic and Literary, Historical,. Philosophical and Legal Studies

Associate Professor of Moral Philosophy, Department DISTU, Tuscia University (Viterbo)

About

58
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Introduction
Maurizio Balistreri currently works at the Department of Philosophy and Educational Sciences, University of Turin. Maurizio does research in Bioethics, Robethics and Ethics.

Publications

Publications (58)
Article
Full-text available
The Catholic Church is not opposed to space travel and exploration. On the contrary, it has always supported space projects, encouraging research on space stations and even considering the possibility of building new settlements on other planets. However, it maintains a principled position against assisted reproduction because, from its perspective...
Article
Full-text available
This article explores the Catholic Church’s perspective on space exploration and construction of human settlements beyond Earth, highlighting the significant moral dilemmas posed by these endeavors. While the Church generally supports space exploration, biotechnologies such as genome editing, assisted reproduction, and artificial wombs – technologi...
Preprint
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The article explores the possibility of genetically modifying embryos in the context of assisted reproductive interventions. The central debate is whether such interventions are therapeutic or whether they alter the personal identity of the unborn child. This disagreement stems from different views of personal identity. The author argues that the c...
Article
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The development of digital technologies has opened the door to surprising possibilities for the future of humanity. The idea of creating a ‘Metaverse’ in which it is possible to build and interact with digital avatars of real deceased people raises a number of complex ethical and moral questions. The prospect of transferring memories and experience...
Article
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This text explores the intricate relationship between personal autonomy and public health objectives, particularly accentuated during the recent pandemic. Emphasising the challenge of balancing individual autonomy with broader public health imperatives, the discussion delves into state interventions that may restrict individual freedom and the pote...
Preprint
Full-text available
In this article I intend to argue that the possible production of increasingly intelligent machines deserving full moral relevance (which we may, therefore, consider as 'artificial persons') may be less desirable and approvable than it might at first glance seem. It is no contradiction to state that in the future intelligent machines can peacefully...
Preprint
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The article explores the role of virtual reality technologies and sex robots in addressing the sexual needs of astronauts engaged in space missions. The positive impacts of sexual activity on physical and psychological health are highlighted, as well as the challenges astronauts will face in space due to the limited opportunity for emotional relati...
Article
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The idea that the phenomenon of morality and, consequently, our ability to distinguish between vice and virtue can be explained by sympathy has been challenged as a highly controversial hypothesis, since sympathy appears to be easily influenced by proximity and selective, and would therefore seem incompatible with the possibility of taking an impar...
Book
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Il volume ha l'obiettivo di avviare una riflessione sui cambiamenti importanti che stanno già avvenendo nell’ambito della cura, dell’assistenza sanitaria e della medicina. Con saggi di Simona Facco, Maurizio Balistreri, Luisella Canta, Vittorio Masotta, Roberta Sala, Vittoria Sanchini, Ilaria Erba, Nicola Liberati, Marco Clari, Emilio Emilio Carlo...
Article
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The medical field of surgery has integrated robots with Artificial Intelligence into its procedures. Currently, these machines primarily assist physicians in their activities, but it is plausible that, with ongoing scientific and technological advancements, AI robot surgeons could replace human surgeons in the near future. After providing an overvi...
Preprint
Full-text available
The idea that the phenomenon of morality and, consequently, our ability to distinguish between vice and virtue can be explained by sympathy has been challenged as a highly controversial hypothesis, since sympathy appears to be easily influenced by proximity and selective, and would therefore seem incompatible with the possibility of taking an impar...
Preprint
Full-text available
Riassunto I bisogni sessuali degli astronauti rappresentano un tema lungamente trascurato delle missioni spaziali. Soltanto di recente la comunità scientifica ha incominciato a interessarsi alla vita sessuale degli astronauti ed a rivolgere una qualche attenzione alle questioni che riguardano il sesso nello spazio. Comunque, il sesso è una question...
Article
Embryo space colonization is one of the solutions that have been proposed to minimize the existential risk that, in the coming centuries, the human species will undergo irreversible extinction. This type of solution involves sending cryopreserved human embryos into space on board a spaceship entirely guided by intelligent machines tasked with ident...
Preprint
Full-text available
Embryo space colonization is one of the solutions that have been proposed to minimize the existential risk that, in the coming centuries, the human species will undergo an irreversible extinction. This type of solution involves sending cryopreserved human embryos into space on board a spaceship entirely guided by intelligent machines tasked with id...
Preprint
Full-text available
Trans-humanism and post-humanism converge on the importance of promoting the birth of the post-human, an individual with capacities "greatly exceeding the maximum attainable by any current human being without recourse to new technological means". A project of this type indeed has nothing therapeutic about it, so it does not concern the field of med...
Article
Full-text available
As space travel and intentions to colonise other planets are becoming the norm in public debate and scholarship, we must also confront the technical and survival challenges that emerge from these hostile environments. This paper aims to evaluate the various arguments proposed to meet the challenges of human space travel and extraterrestrial planeta...
Preprint
Full-text available
The theme of human extinction is increasingly at the center of the current debate on moral philosophy and bioethics. We look at space missions and station construction projects capable of accommodating a large population and at the colonization of other planets with great hope. However, solutions are not excluded either, which for now certainly app...
Article
The theme of human extinction is increasingly at the center of the current debate on moral philosophy and bioethics. We look at space missions and station construction projects capable of accommodating a large population and at the colonization of other planets with great hope. However, solutions are not excluded either, which for now certainly app...
Preprint
Full-text available
Mirko Garasic (2021) argued that space travel and, by extension, the colonization of other planets could morally justify using technologies and interventions capable of profoundly modifying the characteristics of astronauts and future Martian generations. According to Garasic, however, the fact that space interventions such as human (bio)enhancemen...
Preprint
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When we think about posthuman or transhumanist art, we tend to limit our attention to works involving non-human animals or material of an animal origin. The merit of Stefan Sorgner’s work lies in how he encourages us to reflect also on works of art that involve or may imply the use and manipulation of material of human origin. In this article, we i...
Article
There is a growing body of scholarship that is addressing the ethics, in particular, the bioethics of space travel and colonisation. Naturally, a variety of perspectives concerning the ethical issues and moral permissibility of different technological strategies for confronting the rigours of space travel and colonisation have emerged in the debate...
Book
Full-text available
TABLE OF CONTENTS Foreword by John Danaher 1 Translator’s Foreword 5 INTRODUCTION The Inexorable Advance of Robots 7 CHAPTER 1 What’s so Bad About Having Sex with a Robot? 21 What are sex robots? 21 Is it moral to have sex with a robot? 27 Can rape robots be a game? 33 Sex robots and self-deception 42 CHAPTER 2 Sex Robots and Violence Against W...
Preprint
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The past few years has seen a resurgence in the public interest in space flight and travel. Spurred mainly by the likes of technology billionaires like Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos, the topic poses both unique scientific as well as ethical challenges. This paper looks at the concept of generation ships, conceptual behemoth ships whose goal is to bring...
Article
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This paper aims to argue for the thesis that it is not a priori morally justified that the first phase of space colonisation is based on sexual reproduction. We ground this position on the argument that, at least in the first colonisation settlements, those born in space may not have a good chance of having a good life. This problem does not depend...
Preprint
I viaggi nello spazio e la colonizzazione di Marte sono stati a lungo un tema esclusivo della fantascienza: oggi, invece, sono l'obiettivo di alcune importanti società commerciali che intendono sfruttare le nuove tecnologie per rendere gli esseri umani la prima specie capace di vivere su più pianeti. Ma le missioni nello spazio sono morali? Attrave...
Article
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To its merit, Alessio Musio's book gathers the main objections set forth by more conservative bioethical thinking towards assisted reproduction, and reframes them in a new perspective. The Author's polemic objective is apparently surrogate motherhood (or gestation for others); but for Musio, surrogate motherhood is actually but the final stage in a...
Article
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Unlike the traditional conception of humanism, transhumanism, posthumanism, and metahumanism defend a new understanding of humanism. They construe human beings as entities that can no longer be ontologically distinct from other living beings. But even if these conceptions put forward a more modest conception of human beings than the one we find wit...
Book
Full-text available
Un figlio non chiede (e non può chiedere) di nascere, è il genitore che sceglie di portarlo al mondo: che tipo di responsabilità morale comporta una decisione così importante per la vita di un’altra persona? Alcuni pensano che la nascita di un figlio sia sempre un dono meraviglioso che i genitori dovrebbero accettare e amare per quello che è, a pre...
Preprint
Full-text available
As space travel and intentions to colonise other planets are becoming the norm in public debate and scholarship, we must also confront the technical and survival challenges that emerge from these hostile environments. This paper aims to evaluate the various arguments proposed to meet the challenges of human space travel and extraterrestrial planeta...
Preprint
Full-text available
There is a growing body of scholarship that is addressing the ethics, in particular, the bioethics of space travel and colonisation. Naturally, a variety of perspectives concerning the ethical issues and moral permissibility of different technological strategies for confronting the rigours of space travel and colonisation have emerged in the debate...
Chapter
Our life depends more and more on intelligent machines that help us carry out our work or have completely taken our place in tasks which used to be wholly human. This also applies to the field of care and assistance for the sick and fragile: indeed, carebots are increasingly present by the patient’s bed and can collaborate in care work. However car...
Article
Full-text available
Healthcare is becoming increasingly automated with the development and deployment of care robots. There are many benefits to care robots but they also pose many challenging ethical issues. This paper takes care robots for the elderly as the subject of analysis, building on previous literature in the domain of the ethics and design of care robots. U...
Article
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Technological developments involving robotics and artificial intelligence devices are being employed evermore in elderly care and the healthcare sector more generally, raising ethical issues and practical questions warranting closer considerations of what we mean by "care" and, subsequently, how to design such software coherently with the chosen de...
Book
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From an ethical-philosophical, socio-legal and scientific persective, the book addresses the bioethical issues characterizing biotechnology and its application. Biomedical scenarios change so quickly that bioethical conclusions need to be rethought starting from new moral dilemmas. The question is no longer whether it is morally acceptable to inter...
Article
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After embryo production, the couple could be separated or the partner could have changed his mind on the use of excessive embryos or lost the desire to transfer them. This makes no legal difference, a man has the right to deny his consent to reproduction up to the moment of fertilisation: straight after fertilisation, the man loses all rights on em...
Article
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This paper gives an introduction to the interdisciplinary special section. Against the historical and ethical background of reproductive technologies, it explores future scenarios of human reproduction and analyzes ways of mutual engagement between fictional and academic endeavors. The underlying idea is that we can make use of human reproduction s...
Conference Paper
New technology should not perceived as a threat: on the contrary, it is a resource. It is our job to use it in the most appropriate way. Moreover, new technology can make a significant contribution to nurse training: for example, immersion into virtual reality with a visor and a simple application does not only allow one to experience fantastic adv...
Chapter
New technology should not perceived as a threat: on the contrary, it is a resource. It is our job to use it in the most appropriate way. Moreover, new technology can make a significant contribution to nurse training: for example, immersion into virtual reality with a visor and a simple application does not only allow one to experience fantastic adv...
Article
Full-text available
With the scientific and technological development and the refinement of new reproductive technologies it becomes increasingly difficult to distinguish a somatic cell from an embryo. We already have new reproductive technologies, such as nuclear cloning, which demonstrate the ability of somatic cells to produce new individuals (we have not only anim...
Article
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Almost all of the robotic weapons used today in war or in military missions require a human operator to make key decisions: they are unmanned systems. The lethal autonomous weapons systems (the so-called killer robots) are weapons programmed to autonomously select their target and decide whether or not to attack without any meaningful human interve...
Article
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Law 40/2004 on assisted reproduction states that access to medically assisted procreation techniques may be available to couples of different sex, conjugate or cohabiting couples, potentially fertile, both living (article 5). Where "potentially fertile age" means the age at which men and women may normally have a child from their gametes. In our sp...
Chapter
Lo scopo di questo capitolo è quello di descrivere cosa si intende per ricerca scientifica in psicologia, e illustrare il perché la ricerca è scientifica quando è anche “ricerca etica e deontologicamente corretta”. Le due dimensioni, quella della scientificità e dell’eticità, si muovono in parallelo e si arricchiscono mutualmente.
Article
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The essay discusses the main moral questions relating to death and dying tackled by bioethics, by comparing the positions of mainstream paradigms. The starting point will be the moral right to die; then the definition of death and the theme of immortality will be covered. These are very complex issues at the center of wide-ranging literature that w...
Article
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De Crespigny e Savulescu non assumono una posizione di principio contro il parto a casa sulla base di una considerazione dei rischi importanti che questa scelta avrebbe nei confronti del nascituro. Essi non si soffermano sulla probabilità e sull’entità di questo rischio: la tesi che sostengono è che il parto a casa sarebbe irresponsabile anche se i...
Article
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E' giusto che le donne scelgano dove partorire? Riflessione etica sulla scelta del luogo del parto.
Article
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The article examines the moral questions that arise from the military use of enhancement technologies and claims that emerging biotechnologies can help improve the attitudes and capabilities of the soldiers without jeopardizing their integrity and humanity. Even if the military use of enhancement technologies is considered ethically justifiable, ou...
Article
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Women can produce eggs with a high load of abnormal mtDNA. Those who know they have a disease caused by anomalies in the mtDNA can opt for preimplantation genetic diagnosis and select for the implantation the embryos without mutations in mtDNA or with the lowest proportion of abnormal mtDNA. Another option is to have a baby using donated eggs. The...
Article
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La tesi che si intende sostenere è che l’esperienza estetica gioca un ruolo assai importante per la vita morale. L’idea, cioè, è che l’esperienza estetica non solo sia una componente fondamentale della vita buona, ma che essa possa anche contribuire al perfezionamento del carattere morale del soggetto. Che una vita senza spazio per l’esperienza est...
Article
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L'articolo discute alcune questioni relative alla rilevanza morale delle generazioni future
Article
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