81 ŠTÚDIE / ARTICLES World Literature Studies 1  vol. 13  2021 (81 – 96) BOGUMIŁA SUWARA Toward a bioethical perspective for posthumanist aesthetics: Bioart as an example To be or not to be genetically modifed? Francesca Ferrando (2019, 127) Should there be limits to what artists may do with biological materials in the name of art? Tese questions require refecting upon the tensions between the values of “free expression” typically extended to art and artists, and ethical limits that have emerged in the biosciences due to some noteworthy failings of scientists in the past. David Koepsell (2017, 71) Rapid technological development has provoked fears regarding the safety of tech- nological applications.* In the feld of information and cultural technologies, access to the text generator GPT2-AI (for the creation of news reports or fction) was recently discontinued due to fears of potential abuse (Rosenberg 2017; Hern 2019). Bioethi- cists earlier pointed out the potential risks stemming from biotechnology (Bostrom 2002). In publications dealing with these issues, the warning of Jeremy Lanier was ofen repeated as to whether one should do all that one could (Vaage 2016a), but afer the most recent development in gene editing (CRISPR-Cas9) was introduced to clinical practice, it became necessary to reformulate this issue in order to make this introduction as careful and safe as possible (Sýkora 2019). Te infuence of information technology and biotechnology on the transforma- tion of Homo sapiens in the direction of a hypothetical posthuman person (Huxley 1957; Bostrom 2008) or being has been postulated by members of the transhumanist movement, which today is chiefy represented by the +HUMAN organization. Some authors (e.g., Hayles 2011) have expressed doubts over the overly optimistic prom- ises of information technology regarding its ability to transform the human con- sciousness into artifcial intelligence (AI). Furthermore, as biotechnology allows for the possibility of modifying the genetic line of Homo sapiens, bioethicists warn that futuristic transhumanist visions have to be taken seriously and discussed in the pres- ent (Porter 2017; Sorgner 2010). Transhumanist visions were nourishment for the popular imagination, especial- ly in the 1990s (Bolter 2016; Trofoletti 2007). Bioartists have used biotechnology * Tis article was supported by the project APVV-17-0064 “Analysis of multidimensional forms of trans- and post-humanism”. DOI: https://doi.org/10.31577/WLS.2021.13.1.7