Neuro-Enhancement – Doping for the Brain

Lecture of the Europäische Akademie and the Ahrweiler Savings Bank (Kreissparkasse Ahrweiler):

Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler, 22.2.2008. – Yesterday’s lecture on “brain doping” was presented by Bettina Schöne-Seifert, Professor of Medical Ethics at the Institute of Ethics, History, and Theory of Medicine at the Universität of Münster. She examined the question of whether or not it is ethical and socially desirable to increase the performance of healthy human beings through “neuro-enhancement” made possible by the advances of biomedical research.
Schöne-Seifert, who is proposed as member of the German Ethics Council, talked about an ethical evaluation of this kind of “doping”: Is it desirable and reasonable to permit a healthy person to enhance their emotional stability and improve their cognitive performance, and how are we to evaluate such an “enhancement” ethically?
The speaker stressed that the use of such medication is still hypothetical; she acknowledged the existence of a few drugs which, when used to treat patients, also accidentally produced positive effects on healthy people, some of which are now occasionally being used. She explained, however, that the current discussion about such drugs being used on healthy people is still based merely on promises. Therefore, she built her considerations concerning the ethical evaluation of neuro-enhancement on the hypothetical thesis that these drugs will, one day, be risk-free and effective in a positive way.
What advice should one give to one’s grown daughter if she were planning to use neuro-enhancements for her final exams just like her fellow students? Must we not advise against it for reasons of equality and in the interest of balanced social conditions?
Schöne-Seifert showed during the discussion that there are more common, socially acceptable ways of improving one’s physical and mental performance without using medical enhancement. She argued that nobody would consider a cup of coffee in the morning or promoting one’s child’s development through early musical education as objectionable and unfair. So why should we not allow enhancement measures for healthy people, stemming from the human desire to increase one’s performance and to positively enhance one’s personality? Schöne-Seifert explained that there is still no definite answer to that question. She was making reference to regulations for the use of such drugs, which might help to approximate growing social differences. So, we could thus “enhance” socially disadvantaged children.
Schöne-Seifert concluded by stressing that the discussion about effective enhancement was going to remain hypothetical and that up until now there have been no convincing categorical objections to such measures. She said that the social debate was part of a larger context, since fundamental questions of social co-existence, well-being, freedom, and fairness had to be taken into account.

This 15^th lecture of the Kreissparkasse ended with a lively discussion between the speaker and the large audience, headed by Professor Dr. Dr. h.c. Carl Friedrich Gethmann, Director of the Europäischen Akademie. Both the Akademie and the Kreissparkasse where overwhelmed by the large interest in this topic and are planning to continue this lecture series on other current topics.

Curriculum Vitae of Bettina Schöne-Seifert
Professor of Medical Ethics at the Institute of Ethics, History, and Theory of Medicine at the University of Münster

• 1975–1982 Medical School at Freiburg, Vienna, and Göttingen

• 1982 Licence to practice medicine and Ph.D. in Medicine (Göttingen)

• 1984–1987 Junior Doctor at the University Children’s Hospital, Göttingen

• 1983–1990 Studies in Philosophy/Medical Ethics at Los Angeles, Georgetown, and Göttingen

• 1990–1996 Research Associate at the Dept. of Philosophy of the University of Göttingen

• 1994/95 Fellow at the Science College, Berlin

• 1997–2000 Assistant at the Ethics Research Site of the University of Zurich

• 2000 Habilitation (Post-doctoral degree) at the Faculty of Philosophy, Göttingen

• 2001–2003 Visiting Lecturer at the Central Institute for the Theory and Ethics of Science at the University of Hannover

• 2003 Professor of Medical Ethics at the Medical Faculty of the University of Münster/Cooptation at the Dept. of Philosophy