Ethics

Cognitive Enhancement in Toronto Star

By Adam Kolber

The Toronto Star recently did a story about cognitive enhancement that referenced the recent First Annual Neuroethics Society meeting.  Our very own Peter Reiner is quoted in the following excerpt from the article:

DR. PETER REINER, professor at the National Core for Neuroethics at the University of British Columbia, believes the very fact that AAMI ["age-associated memory impairment" -AK] is so widespread is what makes drugs to treat it controversial.

"If it's a serious disease that you are developing a drug against, society does and should tolerate some degree of side effects for that treatment," he explains. "On the other hand, this is not a serious disease, this is not even by definition a disease; it is a change in cognitive status that occurs with aging.

"Because these drugs are very likely going to be pursued widely by the public, they really need to be safer than most drugs usually are when they get approved."

Having watched dozens of prospective AAMI drugs fail clinical trials, Crook believes American approval standards are rigorous enough to account for this. Reiner, a Canadian, isn't so sure. "The regulatory authorities have so much to do already that they really don't have resources to go and think about this in advance.

"That's the mandate of people in the field of neuroethics. That's the way it works until we get to the point when drugs actually are being put in front of the regulatory authorities." 

Full post as published by Neuroethics and Law on December 15, 2008 (boomark / email).