Brain Doping: Is Grey Matter an Ethical Matter?
When an athlete uses performance enhancement drugs, he or she is likely to be called unethical and dishonest.
When a student or professor uses brain enhancement drugs, he or she is likely to be called smart and focused.
Is chemically boosting your brain for an unfair advantage over competitors the same as chemically boosting your body for an edge to beat others? That’s the question at the center of a new debate about drugs and cheating.
Originally prescribed for people with medical conditions like attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and narcolepsy, brain enhancement drugs such as Ritalin and Provigil are increasingly being used by students preparing for a test and academics and other professionals gearing up for that big presentation.
Users of the drugs say they are able to focus more intensely, work faster, and be more creative.
So what’s the matter with grey matter boosting? Plenty, say critics of the practice. “The original purpose of medicine is to heal the sick, not turn healthy people into gods,” says biotech author Francis Fukuyama, cautioning that the increasing use of brain-boosting drugs could unfairly create a new category of haves and have-nots. He and other critics question whether the continued use of the drugs for the purpose of mental advantage will change the connection between human struggle and human character-building.
Others see less profound implications, as well as a distinction between brain doping and body doping. “I think the analogy with sports doping is really misleading,” says neuro-psychologist Martha Farah, “because in sports it’s all about competition…who’s the best runner or home run hitter.” For students or academics, Dr. Farah says, “there is an element of competition, but it’s secondary. The main purpose is to try to learn things, to get experience, to write papers, to do experiments. So in that case if you can do it better because you’ve got some drug on board, that would on the face of things seem like a plus.”
Doctors note that the drugs can be addictive and can produce side effects including restlessness and irritability.
But a participant in a radio talk show questioned all the hubbub “Who hasn’t had coffee or cola before an exam or important meeting? The main issue should be whether the substance is safe. If people can do a better job by eating a good breakfast or taking a drug, who should complain?”
Tell us what you think: Should chemical brain doping be considered unethical, just as body doping is? Is it fair for some students to gain an advantage over others by taking brain-boosters before a test like the SAT?
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Brain doping
The original article is about “brain doping” and it refers to brain enhancing drug giving one an edge over their competition, or to help students study for longer periods of time, or to increase intelligence.
What you are taking is for a medical condition, which is a totally different issue. I definitely do not think that this would be a good practice for students or athletes, ethical or otherwise. It is bad enough knowing that there are stay at home moms taking their children’s ADHD meds to get through the day with. My children had tough school schedules with sports and after school activities and I managed to get through the day, even while working a full time job, as a single parent. I’m sorry, but there is no reason to medicate a perfectly healthy individual to get more out of them whether it is athletic or intellectual.
Of course, this is just my opinion. Yes, it is unethical and unnecessary.
AnnMarie Cunniff | 1 year, 7 months ago
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I agree with you the topic is about ethics
Ms. Cunniff:
I agree with you the topic is about ethics, but you do not make clear the ethical principles you are relying on to support your position that brain doping is always unethical.
Your arguments, considering both of your comments in this blog, seem to emphasize the health risks involved in doping. Because something poses a health risk, is no reason to declare it unethical. Automobiles kill a number of people each year. Would you declare automobiles unethical due to health risks? Perhaps you would amend your argument to say that only things that include a very high health risk are unethical. How would health risk be measured; how high is too high; who would make the determination?
As you can see, health risk as a moral principle is hard to defend. The real way to determine whether the health risk of an action is too high is based upon the individual and the circumstances. If you have terminal cancer and only 30 days to live, taking a drug that has a 75% chance of killing you, but an only a 5% chance of curing you, is an acceptable risk for some people. Health risk as a moral principle does not work, because acceptable risk is individually determined, it is not a universally applicable moral principle.
In your first post, you state, “What a shame it would be not to see…the next Pulitzer Prize winning author finish the greatest novel, knowing that they were not themselves. They were just under the influence of ‘medication’.” You make this argument as if the medication somehow wrote the book, as if it put words in the head of the author that were not there. There is no medication that will write for you. You might argue that the words the author writes are somehow not authentic, but I do not know how you could prove that. Despite any authenticity issues, what about this situation makes it immoral to brain dope?
Finally, in your latest comment, you provide an example from your own life as a reason not to dope. From this example you conclude there is no reason for a healthy person to dope. The fact that you did not require doping in your situation in no way demonstrates a moral principle. Are you, Annmarie Canniff, the measure of moral virtue?
I agree with you that this is a matter of ethics, but I am asking you to examine your position and explicitly state the ethical principles you are relying upon to support it.
Underwhelmed | 1 year, 6 months ago
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Unfair and Unethical
Performance enhancing drugs of any kind are create an uneven playing field, especially in education and athletics. Can you imagine what kind of world we would live in if we were expect to drug our minds and bodies just to operate on the same levels as our peers? As a student, I know that school is not a competition for superiority, but a competition against oneself, to do one’s personal best. Performance enhancing drugs take away the ability to measure one’s own improvement.
Rachel Wilkinson | 1 year, 6 months ago
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Brain doping; ethical?
Recently, I heard that two men were indicted and I think convicted in Alaska, their homeland, for hunting and killing a whale which I further understand they disposed of as their ancestors had for centuries. In short, if the story is correct, they did what they did to feed themselves, their families and, probably an entire village. They were indicted under law developed to prevent the wholesale harvesting of whale for profit.
When an athlete uses drugs simply to enhance performance, in effect to gain an unfair, beyond natural advantage over unsuspecting opponents and/or officials, I see that as unethical. When a student, author, scientist, military decision maker or whatever, uses mind enhancing drugs to increase brain power, I think we are stepping into unethical territory to say the very least. When a person effectively alters the way they think, they alter who they are. Who we are needs to be definable and independent of drugs of any kind.
To return to the men, if a person needs to use proscribed and effectively controlled drugs to allow them to live a productive life because of illness, mental or physical, and that happens to produce a higher IQ or improved test performance, I’d say that goes with the turf.
Of course, the problem again comes down to avarice and greed and, again, I comment on status and status anxiety, the desire to win at all cost as the basis for a good deal of the unethical behavior we speak about.
The difficult part is separating the Inuit in our field of vision from the self serving predators, those who must use proscribed powerful mind affecting drugs to have a life from those who use possibly the same drugs to simply to advance their status in society or, worse, to run away from reality.
Pasquale Bottiglieri | 1 year, 6 months ago
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Really
Truth be told, too many teachers, parents, and others in our “not so perfect society”, think that in order to maintain a child that is active you have to give them a medication. Now they are saying that these “brain booster” medications are the rage. Thing is that I don’t think that these drugs should be taken unless prescribed by a physician. And if you don’t “need” them you cannot get them. The responsibility is in the hands of our trusted physicians. Not in the hands of a dealer on the street, or in a corporate office or in a college. These “brain booster” drugs are dangerous and should be treated as such.
t.amerson | 1 year, 6 months ago
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Drugs are to heal not deal
I totally agree with you. Drugs are used to heal, not deal. Only when an athlete, or a student has been diagnosed by a doctor for a medical or physical condition, should drugs be used. The laws governing competition and education are clear on that.
AnnMarie Cunniff | 1 year, 6 months ago
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Unethical,Illegal,Immoral
Yes, we are free to choose our actions, and to whatever degree we choose, but only if we are ready to accept the consequences; which is where it falls under the rules of the organization or the state we are governed by.
This: “No it is not ethical, not because of the brain doping, but because it is wrong for a government to confiscate the wealth of some for the benefit of others. In a truly free society, which (the United States is not,) the government’s primary function would be to protect the rights of individuals. State sponsored scholarships violate individual right.” How do they violate individual rights, and why do you state “the US is not a totally free society?” Because we are governed by the people that we choose to lead us? That makes us not free to choose?
No, a free society is where people get to choose who leads them, and get to choose which laws are enacted, what acts are illegal, immoral and unethical. How do state sponsored scholarships violate individual rights and what does that have to do with brain doping?
I’m afraid you leave me extremely perplexed.
AnnMarie Cunniff | 1 year, 6 months ago
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Underwhelmed by underwhelmed
I don’t agree that the government should protect the rights of individuals absolutely over the public good and the welfare of all. But I don’t know how Underwhelmed ties that into brain doping. The worst thing about using drugs to enhance performance is that it pushes everyone to use the drugs to remain competitive. We know how athletic performance is now measured in seconds or less. I am not certain that anyone knows whether there is a real positive impact of brain doping…has this been tested scientifically?
Philip Marc Filbin | 1 year, 6 months ago
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Brain boosters
I believe that giving your best effort in sports should not involve an artificial enhancement and neither should anything involving test taking. As a current college student, I had to undergo the painful process of the SAT. I had trouble concentrating on the Reading Comprehension portions of the test but did not take any calming drugs to help me concentrate. I feel it is unfair for kids to take ADD drugs or be granted extra time. Some people are smarter than others and some can just be bad test takers. These drugs screw the SAT scores of kids around the nation because there are those who are given the benefit of a drug that helps calm them or are given extra time.
The SAT is not a definite form of summing up potential students, and may give colleges a false sense of who a student is. I have more respect for colleges who are dropping the SAT because they rather would base their decision on who a student on how they do in school and what they do outside of school. This may be a little farfetched and perhaps a little bit subjective but should there be a yes/no checking for those who take brain doping drugs…such as adderal?
Although I am not at the liberty to decide whether or not these pills can be taken by kids, I feel it is the kids’ choice. It may be necessary for the parents to realize maybe it isn’t the kid’s fault he can concentrate. Perhaps it is a result of parenting.
kgunnar17 | 1 year, 5 months ago
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From someone with personal experience
I took one of these drugs – Adderall – for about 5 years. I quit when I graduated from high school and haven’t taken it since. I’m very glad that I quit because otherwise I probably would have found math interesting enough to get a PhD in it. When you’re on brain dope, you get a chemical “reward” for any sort of mental activity, but in real life you only get a chemical “reward” for things that you find intrinsically interesting. Fortunately, now I know that I don’t really like math and I was able to switch to a different major.
The other thing is this: stimulants don’t make you smarter. They just take advantage of your intelligence by making it more fun to pay attention to things. It’s like taking a creaky machine and oiling it. Of course the well-oiled version is going to work better than the creaky version, but they’re still the same machine. You know how you feel when you’re having a good day, and you’re engaged in the world around you and you’re not tired at all? That’s what it feels like when you’re on these drugs, only it lasts all day.
Unfortunately, you also get VERY bored and irritated when there’s nothing to do, and you can’t tell which subjects are good majors to pursue because EVERYTHING seems interesting. Also, because you get so used to having no appetite, some people gain a lot of weight when they quit taking brain dope. I think a lot of people would benefit from a warning about watching their weight when they quit.
Anyway, you’re free to have your own opinion about how ethical it is to take mental stimulants, but I’d like to clear up a few misconceptions here by walking you through an average school day on “brain dope.” To give you some perspective here, when I’m not drugged up I’m a very lazy, relaxed, empathetic, and intelligent person. I’ve always had high standards for myself but I’m not naturally competitive or focused.
It was 7 in the morning and I was dead tired. I had only gotten three hours of sleep. I stumbled to the kitchen, warmed up some generic breakfast food, and talked to my mom and sister while eating. I took the pill with the breakfast and headed off to take a shower. About half-way into the shower, I started to feel more awake and alert – no more grogginess at all. This alertness would last all day, just like it always did.
On the bus ride to school, I pulled out my unfinished calculus homework and got started on it. It was enjoyable and easy to focus on, just like it’s enjoyable and easy to focus on eating candy. A friend leaned over and interrupted me, which was kind of annoying but I talked to him for a minute. I noticed that I had a headache. He left me alone and I finished the assignment. The headache subsided a bit, and I talked to my friend for the rest of the ride. He talked about some difficulty he was having with his family, and after that was out of his system we talked about how we would govern the country if we had a choice. There was nothing more interesting in the world than human nature.
We got to school and class started. It was easy to pay attention to – it was an interesting subject. EVERY subject was an interesting subject. I didn’t understand why other people got bored with school – school was the only thing that kept me sane. Next class, the teacher let us have a free period to talk and “have fun.” I did my best to reciprocate whenever someone attempted to make conversation with me, but I was mostly just bored and a little irritated. PLEASE let this period be over soon… oh god, 30 more minutes?
Next period we had a class that was taught by a droning teacher who made us copy from the overhead projector. Even I thought that class wasn’t interesting, but it still wasn’t terribly boring.
Lunch time. Geez… food? Ew. The thought of actually chewing and swallowing food made my stomach flip-flop, but my parents would be mad if I didn’t eat my lunch. Fortunately, I knew some people who liked tuna sandwiches and didn’t like cafeteria food, so I wouldn’t have to throw any of it away. I hated to waste perfectly good food, but I couldn’t stand eating more than a few bites.
A friend was having a bad day. She described how she was feeling in terms of a convoluted metaphor. I got impatient with her and asked her to just tell me what the problem was in plain English. She sighed and asked me to call her after school. We both knew that I was more emotionally in touch with her once my Adderall started to wear off. I was too ashamed of having Attention Deficit to tell my other friends about it.
The rest of the school day went by uneventfully…
I took the bus to work. I was completely and utterly miserable for my entire 3 hour shift. I counted down the minutes and cleaned my cash register over and over again just to occupy the time between customers, but it was still unbearable. On top of that my headache was a LOT worse. It always got worse when I was bored or irritated. Finally, FINALLY, my shift ended. You can’t imagine the relief I felt as I walked out of the store’s sliding doors and into the parking lot.
I got a ride home and avoided my parents. I was reading a novel, and if they saw me reading it they would take it away from me. The only thing they ever wanted me to do was homework.
A few hours later I thought about starting on my homework. I had a lot of assignments to do, and if I didn’t start on them soon, I’d have a lot of trouble focusing because my Adderall would be mostly worn off. Plus the whole reason my parents drugged me up was so I could focus on homework, but… nah… homework didn’t count for a very large percentage of my grade, and I was already doing pretty well in most of my classes.
Andrea | 1 year, 5 months ago
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