Why Moral Bioenhancement Cannot Reliably Produce Virtue.

The article critically examines moral bioenhancement (MBE)—the use of biomedical technologies to augment morally desirable emotions, motives, reasoning, and behaviors—through the lens of eudaimonic virtue ethics, a framework emphasizing virtue as a stable character trait with motivational, rational, and behavioral components. It argues that while existing MBEs can influence moral behaviors or dispositions, they cannot reliably or consistently produce genuine virtue because they fail to adequately cultivate the necessary integrated motivational attitudes, practical wisdom (phronesis), and habituated character formation that virtue ethics requires. The authors highlight that MBEs tend to be direct and passive interventions that bypass the active, experiential, and reflective processes essential for virtue acquisition, raising both technical and moral concerns. Ultimately, the article concludes that although MBEs may support virtue development, they do not suffice to produce virtue itself within this ethical framework.