Brain-boosting drugs spark ethical debate


	Brain-boosting drugs spark ethical debate

wildcat

11-10-2007 6:33 AM

420 views

tags:

brain boosting, drugs, mind, prescription, intellectual performance, ethics

2 Comments |

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11-10-2007 7:57 AM

Fast T friend

I wonder if the ethical debate will develop into tests for that sort of drugs in contexts like academic exams, job interviews etc. as they do in sports for body enhancing drugs ?

11-10-2007 9:06 AM

debbyski

OMG Wildcat,
This goes on way more than people think. Some of my daughter's friends are in law school and using these drugs like crazy.

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<div style="margin: 12px 0px; font-family: arial; color: #333333; background: #ffffff; border: solid 4px #e5e5e5; width: 100%; clear: left;"><div class="CM_CTB_Content_Wrap" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;background-color: #ffffff;"><div style="border-bottom: solid 1px #dcdcdc; white-space: nowrap; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: #eeeeee ;background-image: url(http://www.clipmarks.com/images/source-bg.gif); background-repeat: repeat-x; height: 24px; line-height: 24px; vertical-align: middle; padding-bottom: 4px; color: #666666; font-size: 10px;" ><a href="http://clipmarks.com/clip-to-blog/" title="see clips that are hot right now"><img src="http://content.clipmarks.com/blog_embed/c894ea9d-dff4-45fa-a3dc-353f1376a4e4/236F9B16-23B5-4584-A6D5-F3DAD51CE929/" alt="" width="19" height="19" border="0" style="vertical-align: middle; margin: 0px 4px; display: inline; border: none; float:none;" /></a>clipped from <a title="http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?alias=brain-boosting-drugs-spar&chanId=sa003&modsrc=reuters" href="http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?alias=brain-boosting-drugs-spar&chanId=sa003&modsrc=reuters" style="font-size: 11px;">www.sciam.com</a></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?alias=brain-boosting-drugs-spar&chanId=sa003&modsrc=reuters"><P> LONDON (Reuters) - A rise in healthy people popping pills 
to boost performance in exams or work, raises long-term ethical 
and safety concerns about the effects of such treatments, 
British doctors said on Thursday.</P></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?alias=brain-boosting-drugs-spar&chanId=sa003&modsrc=reuters"><P> The British Medical Association (BMA) wants a public debate 
about the risks and benefits of using drugs to improve memory 
and concentration, sometimes called "cognitive enhancement."</P></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?alias=brain-boosting-drugs-spar&chanId=sa003&modsrc=reuters"><P> The ability of prescription drugs and medical procedures to 
improve intellectual performance is likely to increase 
significantly in the next 20 to 30 years as technology 
advances.</P></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?alias=brain-boosting-drugs-spar&chanId=sa003&modsrc=reuters"><P> "However, given that no drug or invasive medical procedure 
is risk free, is it ethical to make them available to people 
who are not ill?"</P></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?alias=brain-boosting-drugs-spar&chanId=sa003&modsrc=reuters"><P> Surreptitious use of brain-boosting prescription drugs is 
particularly common in the United States and likely to increase 
in Britain, the BMA said.</P></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?alias=brain-boosting-drugs-spar&chanId=sa003&modsrc=reuters">
Popular choices include drugs for attention deficit 
hyperactivity disorder, such as Ritalin, or methylphenidate, 
made by Novartis AG</blockquote></div><div style="margin: 0px 6px 6px 4px;"><table style="font-size: 11px;border-spacing: 0px;padding: 0px;" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tr><td style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;">&nbsp;</td><td align="right" style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;width:107px" width="107"><a href="http://clipmarks.com/share/236F9B16-23B5-4584-A6D5-F3DAD51CE929/blog/" title="blog or email this clip"><img src="http://content9.clipmarks.com/images/c2b-foot.png" border="0" alt="blog it" width="107" height="17" style="border-width:0px;padding:0px;margin:0px;" /></a></td></tr></table></div></div>