PT - JOURNAL ARTICLE AU - Paul Richard Miller TI - What are we to make of the charge that human biological enhancement technologies are ‘unnatural’? AID - 10.1136/medethics-2018-104991 DP - 2019 Feb 01 TA - Journal of Medical Ethics PG - 140--143 VI - 45 IP - 2 4099 - http://jme.bmj.com/content/45/2/140.short 4100 - http://jme.bmj.com/content/45/2/140.full SO - J Med Ethics2019 Feb 01; 45 AB - In popular lay discourse, objections to human biological enhancement technologies are sometimes expressed in terms of the charge that they are unnatural. This paper critiques the literal claim that seems to be presented here, namely that such technologies are in some ordinary sense ’unnatural' and that it follows from this they are immoral. Such a conceptual ’nature argument' is unsound. However, the paper contends that this does not mean that the charge of unnaturalness should be dismissed out of hand. Rather, the charge of unnaturalness made by a non-philosophically trained public can be construed as expressive of a general attitude of conservative concern about enhancement technologies. Viewed in this way, the charge invites philosophers to take seriously the underlying empirical concerns that underpin these widespread lay reactions.