The Future of Psychopharmacological Enhancements: Expectations and Policies
- PDF / 211,332 Bytes
- 13 Pages / 547.087 x 737.008 pts Page_size
- 65 Downloads / 170 Views
ORIGINAL PAPER
The Future of Psychopharmacological Enhancements: Expectations and Policies Maartje Schermer & Ineke Bolt & Reinoud de Jongh & Berend Olivier
Received: 19 September 2008 / Accepted: 15 January 2009 / Published online: 11 February 2009 # The Author(s) 2009. This article is published with open access at Springerlink.com
Abstract The hopes and fears expressed in the debate on human enhancement are not always based on a realistic assessment of the expected possibilities. Discussions about extreme scenarios may at times obscure the ethical and policy issues that are relevant today. This paper aims to contribute to an adequate and ethically sound societal response to actual current developments. After a brief outline of the ethical debate concerning neuro-enhancement, it describes the current state of the art in psychopharmacological science and current uses of psychopharmacological enhancement, as well as the prospects for the near future. It then identifies ethical issues regarding psychopharmacological enhancements that require attention from policymakers, both on the professional and on the governmental level. These
M. Schermer (*) : I. Bolt Medical Ethics and Philosophy of Medicine, ErasmusMC, P.O. Box 2040, Rotterdam, CA 3000, The Netherlands e-mail: [email protected] I. Bolt Ethics Institute, Utrecht University, P.O. Box 80103, Utrecht, TC 3508, The Netherlands R. de Jongh Institute of Psychology, Erasmus University, P.O. Box 1738, Rotterdam, DR 3000, The Netherlands B. Olivier Pharmaceutical Sciences, Utrecht University, P.O. Box 80082, Utrecht, TB 3508, The Netherlands
concern enhancement research, the gradual expansion of medical categories, off-label prescription and responsibility of doctors, and accessibility of enhancers on the Internet. It is concluded that further discussion on the advantages and drawbacks of enhancers on a collective social level is still needed. Keywords Psychopharmacology . Enhancement . Policy
Introduction Over the past decade, possibilities for human enhancement have been hotly debated in bioethics, especially with regard to genetics and new and emerging biotechnologies. More recently, this discussion also turned to the possibilities for enhancing mental functioning of people. The enhancement of mood and cognition, especially by means of psychoactive drugs, has raised significant controversy. Some see a great enhanced future ahead, while others dread a decline of important human values if neuro-enhancement were possible. These hopes and fears are not always based on a realistic view of what is and might be possible with regard to neuro-enhancement and in our view this sometimes interferes with formulating adequate policies and regulations alongside the development of new enhancement technologies. In this paper we will first give a brief outline of the ethical debate concerning neuro-enhancement, and
76
then describe the current state of affairs and the prospects that we consider to be realistic. Departing from this assessment, we will identify the present
Data Loading...
