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MEMORY MANAGEMENT
&
Enhancement pharmaceuticals
On the near horizon are a slew
of new pharmaceuticals that we call memory management drugs. Some of
these aim to improve memory safely. Other drugs are designed to help
people dim or to erase the sort of memories that haunt those
suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.
In the next five to ten
years, these memory-enhancing and memory-diminishing drugs are bound to
raise important freedom of thought issues. The CCLE sees a great deal of
potential in these pharmaceuticals, while at the same time we seek to
identify future legal complications and threats to cognitive liberty, which
may arise if used coercively.
For instance, what if
emergency room personnel automatically begin giving memory-diminishing drugs
to trauma victims? What if you are the victim of a violent crime and want to
forget what happened to you, but need those memories in order to testify or
identify the perpetrator? What if you are the only eye-witness to a crime,
could the government compel you to take a memory-boosting drug at least
until you testify in court?
As always, we support an
individual's choice to take, or to refuse, memory management drugs. The CCLE
seeks to ensure that future policies regarding these drugs help to expand
rather than contract freedom of thought.
Resources
Can popping
pills make your life better?
Claire Sawers, The Scotsman, July 21, 2004
"Pharmaceutical analysts estimate the worldwide market in lifestyle drugs is
worth around £11 billion a year, with the potential for huge growth. The
irony is that the vast majority of this pill-popping is not based on
clinical need."
Smart
Pill, anyone?
By Henry I. Miller/David Longtin, Washington Times, July 21, 2004
"This field of "psychopharmacological enhancement" is growing in intensity
and sophistication."
'Smart pills' make headway
Rita Rubin, USA Today, July 7, 2004
"Thanks to recent strides in understanding how the brain works, it's only a
matter of time before medications specifically designed to improve mental
ability or cognition, hit the market. ...Companies with such evocative
names as Sention and Memory Pharmaceuticals are focusing on medications to
treat patients whose brains are impaired by disease or injury. But the real
market for such drugs might be healthy people who would simply like to be a
little quicker on the uptake."
Memory Enhancers
Brain Briefings, June 2004. Society for Neuroscience
We hold these freedoms to be self-evident...
An interview with Richard Glen Boire of the CCLE
By Liz Else, New Scientist, Apr. 2004
Wrye Sententia's Letter to the Editor RE: The Quest to Forget
By Robin Marantz Henig, New York Times Magazine, Apr.
4, 2004
Manipulating your mind
What will science discover about our brains,& how are we going to deal with
it?
By Holger Breithaupt & Katrin Weigmann, EMBO reports VOL 5 | NO 3 | ©2004
Blanks
for the memories: Someday you may be able to take a pill to forget painful
recollections
By Scott LaFee, (c) San Diego Union Tribune, Feb. 11, 2004
Cognitive Liberty in the Age of Memory-management Drugs
By Richard Glen Boire, Special to BetterHumans, Jan. 15, 2004
'We can implant entirely false memories'
By Laura Spinney, The Guardian (UK), Dec. 3, 2003
Cognitive
Liberty and the 'Right to Erase Memories' Explained
By Richard Glen Boire, Brainwaves, Sep.
5, 2003
Forget
About It?
By Richard Glen Boire,
Brainwaves, Aug. 27, 2003
Memory Erasing, Coming Soon Says Cognitive Liberty Group:
Paycheck Movie Raises Important Mental Rights Concerns, Experts Say
CCLE Press Release
Insufficient Memory: Can a pill
boost your brain’s ability to hold information?
By Jamie Talan, (c) Newsday.com, Nov. 18, 2003
“Better” Memories? The Promise and Perils of Pharmacological
Interventions
Staff Working Paper of the
Presidents Council on Bioethics,
Spring 2003
The
Battle For Your Brain:
Science Is Developing Ways To Boost Intelligence, Expand Memory, And More.
But Will You Be Allowed To Change Your Own Mind?
By Ronald Bailey, Reason Magazine, 2003
The Guilt-Free Soldier
Erik Baard, The Village Voice, Jan. 28, 2003
Matter
Over Mind?
By Ellen Goodman,
Washington Post, Nov. 16, 2002
Memory enhancement: the search for mechanism-based drugs
By Gary Lynch, Nature Neuroscience, November 2002 Volume 5 Supplement pp
1035 - 1038
This page was last edited:
01/21/2005 |
