Ethics 116 (July 2006): 656–679
� 2006 by The University of Chicago. All rights reserved. 0014-1704/2006/11604-
0003$10.00656The Reversal Test: Eliminating Status Quo
Bias in Applied Ethics*Nick Bostrom and Toby OrdI. INTRODUCTIONSuppose that we develop a medically safe and affordable means of
enhancing human intelligence. For concreteness, we shall assume that
the technology is genetic engineering (either somatic or germ line),
although the argument we will present does not depend on the tech-
