Brave New Mind: Smart drugs and the ethics of neuro-enhancementBrave New Mind: Smart drugs and the ethics of neuro-enhancement
All In The Mind
An April Fools prank this year saw the launch of the World Anti-Brain Doping Authority. Jokes aside, drugs like Ritalin for ADHD and Modafinil for sleeping disorders are now being popped by people who want to be weller than well. Some argue that the spectre of 'smart drugs' and 'cosmetic pharmacology' pose a challenge to our authentic selves. Do we know the long term risks? And in the classroom, would brain-doping be cheating?
30:14•14 Jun 2008
Smart Drugs, Fair Play and the Question of Our "Authentic" Self
Episode Overview
- Healthy people are increasingly using drugs like Ritalin and modafinil to gain cognitive advantages, raising concerns about fairness and cheating.
- There is little evidence on long-term effects of cognitive enhancers, especially on children and adolescents whose brains are still developing.
- Military and academic uses of wakefulness and memory drugs spark fears about creating unemotional fighters and pressure-filled, enhancement-driven cultures.
- Pharmacological tools to dampen traumatic memories may help with PTSD but could also affect empathy, moral emotions and important autobiographical memories.
- Experts stress the need for careful regulation and honest risk information, while recognising individuals' rights to choose what they do to their own brains.
“"About one in five had taken a cognitive enhancing drug. So one wonders, really, if we look more widely, what might happen."”
What drives someone to seek a sharper, "better" brain than the one they were born with? This instalment of All In The Mind takes on smart drugs and asks whether boosting a healthy mind with pills is clever progress or a slippery ethical slope. Natasha Mitchell chats with clinical neuropsychologist Professor Barbara Sahakian and bioethicist Professor Walter Glannon, who bring both lab data and moral worries to the table.
You'll hear Sahakian describe how drugs like Ritalin and modafinil, designed for ADHD and sleep disorders, are now popular among students, scientists and shift workers wanting to be "weller than well". She notes, "About one in five had taken a cognitive enhancing drug", raising alarms about safety, fairness and what counts as cheating in classrooms and workplaces.
Glannon digs into concerns about long‑term effects, especially on developing brains, and the pressure people might feel if colleagues and classmates are all using cognitive enhancers. The conversation ranges from playground Ritalin trading and campus black markets to military use of modafinil to keep soldiers awake for days, and even proposals to dampen traumatic memories with drugs like propranolol. Along the way, the trio wrestle with big questions: Are we edging towards a "new normal" where enhancement feels compulsory?
Could blunting fear or empathy in soldiers turn them into unemotional fighting machines? And might popping a pill for every difficulty mean we miss out on the character-building lessons that come from overcoming stress the hard way? Thoughtful, sometimes unsettling, and often very human, this episode is ideal if you're curious about where brain science meets ethics, and you want to think harder about what counts as your "authentic" self.
So, if you could safely sharpen your focus, memory or mood with a pill, would you reach for it?
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