Citation

Kjærsgaard T. AJOB Neurosci. 2015; 6(1): 4-10.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2015, Informa - Taylor and Francis Group)

DOI

10.1080/21507740.2014.990543

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Healthy individuals' use of prescription drugs taken with the intention to enhance performance in academia or at work and related ethical issues concerning cognitive enhancement have been widely discussed in the academic literature. Qualitative studies have shown that enhanced motivation is one of the most pronounced effects experienced by healthy individuals seeking to boost their academic performance by taking prescription drugs. But bioethicists dealing with the ethical issues of cognitive enhancement have so far neglected to offer ethical analyses paying special attention to the ethics of motivation enhancement. In this article I discuss ethical issues of motivation enhancement induced by currently available prescription drugs. I argue that medically enhanced motivation raises questions concerning the ethics of accomplishment and the value of human effort.

Language: en