Ethics

The End of Impairment? (Reiner)

By Peter Reiner

Mark Meier over at Science Progress has a new article entitled "The End of Impairment?".  It deals with the obvious issue of use of cognitive enhancers and other medications by medical professionals.  The article includes off-the-record interviews with a number of physicians and medical students, and their comments are more than a bit interesting.

Almost all the recent or aspiring MDs quoted above agreed cognitive enhancement would spread assuming nothing else changed. A first-year student concluded, similarly to many, ?If there?s money to be made, as long as people want that stuff, then there?ll be people interested in supplying it.? And demand exists. ?If there?s a pill out there that can?t be abused,? explained the neurology resident, ?but makes me more alert and a better doctor during the day and gives me energy to work out at the gym afterward, sure, I?d take it.?

Full post as published by Neuroethics and Law on October 01, 2008 (boomark / email).