Towards a Moral Ecology of Pharmacological Cognitive Enhancement in British Universities
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ORIGINAL PAPER
Towards a Moral Ecology of Pharmacological Cognitive Enhancement in British Universities Meghana Kasturi Vagwala & Aude Bicquelet & Gabija Didziokaite & Ross Coomber & Oonagh Corrigan & Ilina Singh
Received: 9 December 2016 / Accepted: 2 June 2017 # The Author(s) 2017. This article is an open access publication
Abstract Few empirical studies in the UK have examined the complex social patterns and values behind quantitative estimates of the prevalence of pharmacological cognitive enhancement (PCE). We conducted a qualitative investigation of the social dynamics and moral attitudes that shape PCE practices among university students in two major metropolitan areas in the UK. Our thematic analysis of eight focus groups (n = 66) suggests a moral ecology that operates within the social infrastructure of the university. We find that PCE
resilience among UK university students is mediated by normative and cultural judgments disfavoring competitiveness and prescription drug taking. PCE risk can be augmented by social factors such as soft peer pressure and normalization of enhancement within social and institutional networks. We suggest that moral ecological dynamics should be viewed as key mechanisms of PCE risk and resilience in universities. Effective PCE governance within universities should therefore attend to developing further understanding of the moral ecologies of PCE.
M. K. Vagwala Trinity College of Arts and Sciences, Duke University, P.O. Box 95790, Duke University West Campus, Durham, NC 27708, USA
Keywords Ritalin . Adderall . Modafinil . Cognitive enhancement . Ethics . Smart drugs
A. Bicquelet NatCen Social Research, 35 Northampton Square, London EC1V 0AX, UK
Background
G. Didziokaite Department of Social Sciences, Loughborough University, Brockington Building, Margaret Keay Rd, Loughborough LE11 3TU, UK R. Coomber Griffith Criminology Institute, Mt Gravatt Campus, M10_4.02N, Brisbane, QLD 4122, Australia O. Corrigan University of East Anglia, Norwich Research Park, Norwich NR4 7TJ, UK I. Singh (*) Department of Psychiatry and Oxford Uehiro Centre, University of Oxford, Warneford Ln, Oxford OX3 7JX, UK e-mail: [email protected]
From its nascence in the early twenty-first century, the field of neuroethics has been tightly tied to the issue of cognitive enhancement [1]. Though bioethicists have grappled with the treatment-enhancement debate for decades, in the case of cognitive enhancement, the vast array of mental states that are considered Bnormal,^ and the largely uncharted nature of the human brain blur this classical dichotomy [2]. Out of this ambiguity arise several important ethical questions, which have been addressed from a number of disciplinary perspectives: How do we recognize and measure enhancements in cognition [3]? What are the impacts of cognitive enhancement on the moral and social development of the individual [4]? What are the effects of pharmacological
M.K. Vagwala et al.
cognitive enhancement (PCE), the most accessible means of cognitive enhancement, fo
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