Experts Weigh In On The Ethics Of Using Brain-Enhancing Drugs

By: Tanya Lewis Published: March 26, 2015 08:00am ET Boosting a person's smarts through drugs or electrical or magnetic stimulation of the brain is becoming an increasingly widespread practice. Now, bioethicists are weighing in, saying that while such cognitive enhancement is neither bad nor good, it deserves more research. In the past, "there have been many arguments that suggest one should take an ethical stance for or against cognitive enhancement" of healthy individuals, said Amy Gutmann, chairwoman of the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues, which released the second part of a report today (March 26) on ethics in neuroscience research, commissioned by President Barack Obama as part of the BRAIN Initiative, a collaborative effort to develop tools to study the human brain. "We as a commission recommend there is no bright line to be drawn here," Gutmann told Live Science during a news conference yesterday. [10 Easy Ways to Keep Your Mind Sharp] The new report focused on three main areas: cognitive enhancement, informed consent in mentally impaired individuals and the use of neuroscience in the legal system. The bioethics commission called for continued research into the effects of all forms of neural modification, for both healthy people and those suffering from brain disorders, said commission member Dr. Stephen Hauser, chair of neurology at the University of California, San Francisco. This includes brain-enhancing drugs, such as ...
Source: Science - The Huffington Post - Category: Science Source Type: news