In recent decades, advances in molecular biology have made the artificial selection of biological functions a familiar part of contemporary civilization: Just as we can whittle a stick into a spear, biologists can now modify an organism to become a factory for fuel or pharmaceuticals. The success of genetic engineering may encourage us to see the distinction between artifacts and organisms as a vestige of our benighted vitalist past. However, in spite of the impressive power of contemporary bio-engineering, our old intuitions concerning the difference between organisms and artifacts still have some content. This paper argues that there is a meaningful difference between organisms and artifacts, that this difference involves the character of their individuality.