Use of Brain-Enhancing Drugs Ethically Acceptable, Scientists Argue
Dec 15th, 2008 • Posted in: NewsCritics wonder if using medications normally prescribed for attention deficit disorder will put people under pressure to enhance or increase risks from side effects
NEW YORK
It is ethically justifiable for otherwise healthy people to take pills that will boost their mental abilities, a group of scientists suggested last week.
In a piece published by the influential journal Nature, the authors argued for permitting the use of medications normally prescribed for those with attention deficit disorder or memory impairment.
The seven co-authors admitted that thorny ethical and medical questions must be addressed, according to a summary of the report in the San Francisco Chronicle.
“We call for a presumption that mentally competent adults should be able to engage in cognitive enhancement using drugs,” said the writers, who include Stanford law professor Henry Greely and neuropsychology professor Barbara Sahakian of Britain’s University of Cambridge. “From assembly line workers to surgeons, many different kinds of employee may benefit from enhancement and want access to it, yet they may also need protection from the pressure to enhance.”
The Chronicle quotes Dr. Russell Reiff, a San Francisco pediatrician critical of the proposal: “‘These medications can have very significant side effects,’ Reiff said. Healthy college students, rather than ‘pathologizing’ their weariness over a grueling class schedule, could build in some time to shoot hoops between lectures, Reiff said.”
Use of drugs such as Ritalin for brain enhancement already is seen among college students and scientists, according to Nature and a series of articles in Wired magazine.
According to U.S. News & World Report, some proponents of brain enhancing say wider availability of such medicines could help adults who unknowingly have attention deficit disorder identify and cope with the problem.
Sources: Wired, Dec. 10 — Nature, Dec. 10 — San Francisco Chronicle, Dec. 8 — U.S. News & World Report, Dec. 8 — Wired, Apr. 9, 2007.
For more information, see: Related Newsline story, Sep. 22 — Related Newsline story, May 5 — Related Newsline Commentary, Apr. 28 — Related Newsline story, Nov. 13, 2007 — Related Newsline story, Sep. 18, 2000.
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