Artificial Enhancement of Motivation Is Typically Not a Bioethical Problem

摘要

Based on qualitative findings that enhanced motivation to improve academic performance is a primary reason for healthy individuals to take prescription drugs, Torben Kj?rsgaard (2015) argued that such motivational enhancement constitutes a bioethical problem. His argument rests on two main legs. First, Kj?rsgaard asserted that although there are real disorders where treatment with prescription drugs is indicated, lack of motivation is not, and should not be, classified as a disorder. Because lack of motivation is not a disorder, it is unethical to treat it with prescription drugs. Kj?rsgaard's second leg is less straightforward but is related to the claim that lack of motivation is not a disorder. He admitted that it would not be a bioethical problem for a person to use prescription drugs if the reason for use is sufficiently limited. For example, there would not be a bioethical problem with using prescription drugs to increase motivation to perform well in a particular course. But it would be a bioethical problem if one were to use prescription drugs to increase motivation during school more generally. The difference seems to be that using drugs to increase motivation to achieve a subordinate goal in the service of a superordinate goal is not a bioethical problem, whereas using drugs more generally directly for a superordinate goal is a bioethical problem.