Academic Ethical Dilemma: Learning Enhancement Through Chemistry
Academic Ethical Dilemma: Learning Enhancement Through Chemistry
There is a trend occurring in the academic world that is gaining in popularity and has many in the academic world worried. This trend is the increase use of drugs to enhance the brain's ability to not only work harder, longer and faster but also to retain that knowledge. "Doping" is no longer the exclusive realm of sports professionals" (Block,2003). Not only does this create opportunities for today's students to excel but it also creates some major ethical issues to be addressed.
There are two popular drugs that are reported to be at the forefront of this trend: Ritalin, which is used to control hyperactivity in children and Modafinil, which is used to treat narcolepsy. It is important to remember that these drugs should only be dispensed with a prescription and for a specified condition (i.e. hyperactivity, narcolepsy). However, this too is changing.
Probably at the heart and heat of this debate are the ethical landmines (Lamb 2004), which we need to pay attention to:
1. By allowing or knowing that these chemical enhancements are being used to boost brain power by students, are we in fact giving an edge to some students while putting the other students at a disadvantage? Would this constitute cheating? There are those experts who feel that using these drugs equate to "brain steroids" and that this is giving those students an unfair advantage (Laurance, 2003). These drugs, because they help to minimize fatigue and help the student to work at peak performance by keeping focused and on task. 2. If it is decided that the use of these enhancement drugs is deemed acceptable, will they be available to all students. What about the students who cannot afford the cost of such drugs? It is already perceived by some that the rich or well to do already have an edge in their ability to hire tutors is this just another one of those advantages? Currently there are many students that are
There is a trend occurring in the academic world that is gaining in popularity and has many in the academic world worried. This trend is the increase use of drugs to enhance the brain's ability to not only work harder, longer and faster but also to retain that knowledge. "Doping" is no longer the exclusive realm of sports professionals" (Block,2003). Not only does this create opportunities for today's students to excel but it also creates some major ethical issues to be addressed.
There are two popular drugs that are reported to be at the forefront of this trend: Ritalin, which is used to control hyperactivity in children and Modafinil, which is used to treat narcolepsy. It is important to remember that these drugs should only be dispensed with a prescription and for a specified condition (i.e. hyperactivity, narcolepsy). However, this too is changing.
Probably at the heart and heat of this debate are the ethical landmines (Lamb 2004), which we need to pay attention to:
1. By allowing or knowing that these chemical enhancements are being used to boost brain power by students, are we in fact giving an edge to some students while putting the other students at a disadvantage? Would this constitute cheating? There are those experts who feel that using these drugs equate to "brain steroids" and that this is giving those students an unfair advantage (Laurance, 2003). These drugs, because they help to minimize fatigue and help the student to work at peak performance by keeping focused and on task. 2. If it is decided that the use of these enhancement drugs is deemed acceptable, will they be available to all students. What about the students who cannot afford the cost of such drugs? It is already perceived by some that the rich or well to do already have an edge in their ability to hire tutors is this just another one of those advantages? Currently there are many students that are