Intellectual Doping and Pharmaceutical Cognitive Enhancement in Education: Some Ethical Questions

The main aim of this paper is to discuss some moral implications of cognitive doping in education. In this context, the term ‘cognitive doping’ refers to the use of cognitive enhancing drugs—such as Ritalin—among students in order to improve their cognitive functions and educational performance on college exams. Cognitive doping raises not only the question of its health consequences and its legal regulation, but also the ethical questions concerning the moral difference between medical treating and enhancing humans, on the one hand, and the fairness of educational examination results, on the other. Such doping, which is similar to the doping in sports, gives an unfair advantage to students who use cognitive enhancing drugs over those who do not. However, the key question is not how to ensure equal access to the enhancing drugs, but rather whether their use for educational purposes is right. Therefore, this question would remain even if all students had equal access to such drugs and the willingness to use them.