Human Enhancement: A Conceptual Scoping Review

Moral bioenhancement refers to the use of biological or technological interventions to make a moral agent better as a moral agent. The literature often fails to acknowledge critical underlying assumptions and differences in how the term is understood and applied. This scoping review of the moral bioenhancement literature offers a conceptual geography of terms, definitions, and ethical considerations raised in the literature to advance analysis and discussion. It reveals ambiguities that are central to but not always addressed in the literature. Eight key areas are identified, and an overview of the relevant differences in each area is provided: definitions, types of interventions, targets of enhancement, reasons identified for pursuing moral enhancement, objections to or concerns with moral enhancement, the conditions under which moral enhancement is permissible or obligatory, whether and how authors invoke character and virtue, and whether and what role the concepts of transhumanism or post-personhood play.