Topic #4: The Ethics of Cognitive Enhancement - Essays

The Topic
Our society values achievement. Our employers extol the virtue of hard work, our professors encourage us to study harder, our coaches expect 110%, and the US Army attracts new recruits with the slogan “Be all you can be!” In the pursuit of excellence, we hire tutors and athletic trainers; we consult psychologists, dieticians, and personal finance consultants; we take piano lessons and enroll in SAT prep classes. And, some of us take drugs.

When baseball players turn to anabolic steroids to be all that they can be, we are appalled. We are also concerned when we read reports of college students using stimulants, such as Ritalin, to help them prepare for exams. What makes the pharmaceutical road to success morally suspect? Is there a difference between the use of drugs in athletics and in academics? Can we control the use of stimulants by college students? Should we? Read what Ben and Carl have to say about this issue, do a little research, and join the conversation.

The Essays
The following essays, written by students at the Germantown Academy, address the issue of the ethics of cognitive enhancement, whether in the form of steroids to enhance athletic performance or stimulants to boost academic achievement.

Tyler Kenny welcomes the development of brain-boosting drugs. He notes that the US military already relies on stimulants to improve the performance of critical forces and feels that these drugs would be an important aid to busy students and surgeons as well.

Victoria Edwards disagrees. She notes that cognitive enhancing drugs were developed for therapeutic purposes and argues that use by healthy individuals is morally wrong. She labels such use "cheating."

Jacob Olitsky does not feel that the use of brain-boosting drugs for the enhancement of healthy brains is inherently wrong but has two concerns about making such use legal. First, the side effects have not been sufficiently investigated. Second, until the drugs can be produced cheaply enough to be effectively available to all, their legalization would further widen the gap between the poor and the wealthy.

Where do you stand on this issue? Please join the conversation.

Cognitive Enhancement

by Tyler Kenny

Legalize Cheating?

by Victoria Edwards

Cognitive Enhancement

by Jacob Olitsky

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