Personal Autonomy and Corporeality: a Current Issue

Abstract

This article reflects on the new scope that the autonomy ofpersons has gained through technological developments, amongother reasons, applied mainly to the biological and health spheres. Historically, autonomy was developedfrom the perspective of «negative freedom»(freedom from), i.e. freedom from differentconstraints, and «positive freedom», only asfreedom of thought. Presently, a type of autonomyhas gained relevance that is both self-referentialand external, and projects itself as positivefreedom, i.e. «freedom to». The relationshipbetween technological development and theautonomous exercise of positive freedom opens up an unsuspected domain of realizations thatcould not be submitted to moral or juridicalreproach, which is where its unique difficultylies; for example, as regards convergencetechniques for human development or, in anextreme case, similar decisions concerninghuman life.