Abstract

In this paper I give an overview about the general implications of issues of human nature within the field of human enhancement, especially paediatric neuro-enhancement. The first section of my contribution deals with a certain intertwining of human enhancement and the intrinsic claims of human nature showing that the concept of human nature still plays a crucial role in the debate on human enhancement. Subsequently, I take a step towards analysing of several childhood-related influences on those claims of human nature. After that, my aim is to validate the view that paediatric neuro-enhancement is a special case of human enhancement that falls under the same normative criteria as “normal enhancement”, requiring a special contextual awareness to get along with it ethically. Methodically, my intention is to draw on naturalistic approaches, which argue that our human nature is not a “mixed bag” but seems to be wholly constituted by its species-related characteristics. Against this backdrop, I finally hope to give rise to the view that paediatric neuro-enhancement is no part of a countable set of therapeutic practices prescribed by the life form and its natural goodness.