Veljko Dubljević

The Rising Tide of tDCS in the Media and Academic Literature

Academic and public interest in tDCS has been fueled by strong claims of therapeutic and enhancement effects. We report a rising tide of tDCS coverage in the media, while regulatory action is lacking and ethical issues need to be addressed.

Prohibition or Coffee Shops: Regulation of Amphetamine and Methylphenidate for Enhancement Use by Healthy Adults

This article analyzes appropriate public policies for enhancement use of two most important stimulant drugs: Ritalin (methylphenidate) and Adderall (mixed amphetamine salts). The author argues that appropriate regulation of cognition enhancement drugs cannot be a result of a general discussion on cognitive enhancements as such, but has to be made on a case-by-case basis. Starting from the recently proposed taxation approach to cognition enhancement drugs, the author analyzes available, moderately permissive models of regulation. After a thorough analysis of relevant characteristics of methylphenidate and amphetamine, the author concludes that a moderately liberal permissive regulation of enhancement use by healthy adults might be appropriate for extended release forms of methylphenidate. However, due to their danger profile, amphetamine and instant release forms of methylphenidate should not be made readily available to healthy adults and would need to be prohibited.

Autonomy in Neuroethics: Political and Not Metaphysical

This article examines and refutes the claims that neuroscientific evidence renders autonomy “quixotic” and thus supports a shift toward paternalism in medical and political decision-making. The author argues that the notion of autonomy has been mistakenly associated with the metaphysical concept of free will, and offers a political definition of autonomy to clarify how responsibility is implicitly grounded in the legal and political system: An agent acts autonomously when she/he (a) endorses decisions and acts in accord with internal motivational states, (b) shows commitment to them in the absence of undue coercion and compulsion, and (c) could as a reasonable and rational person continue to do so after a period of informed critical reflection. The author further argues that neuroscientific findings confirm the assumption that humans are fundamentally fallible social creatures and explain the mechanisms of openness to the social world, which can be and sometimes are abused. A naturalistic framework does not dispute autonomy or rights, but it does point toward means of manipulation and toward areas in which further legal protection of rights and autonomous choice is needed. The author concludes by clarifying the ideal-typical degrees of coercion (indirect, direct and total) and compulsion (mild, severe and total) that serve the purpose of qualifying reduction of autonomy and responsibility in certain cases, and elaborating the middle-ground position between the “moral” and “brain disease” model of addiction.

Toward a Legitimate Public Policy on Cognition-Enhancement Drugs

This article proposes a model for regulating use of cognition enhancement drugs for nontherapeutic purposes. Using the method of reflective equilibrium, the author starts from the considered judgment of many citizens that treatments are obligatory and permissible while enhancements are not, and with the application of general principles of justice explains why this is the case. The author further analyzes and refutes three reasons that some influential authors in the field of neuroethics might have for downplaying the importance of justice: (1) Justice applies only to public funds and state action—not to individual choice or corporate actors. (2) “Performance enhancement” does imply questions of justice, while “performance maintenance” does not. (3) There is no sufficient difference between cognition-enhancement drugs and other technologies to warrant the importance of justice for the debate. The challenges are refuted by taking into account the difference between consumption and tool use, and the influence of socioeconomic pressure for widespread use that existing drugs could have on the basic structure of society and equal autonomy of citizens. The analysis of requirements of justice points to a conclusion that introducing economic disincentives for the use of cognition-enhancement drugs would be the most legitimate public policy. With the imposition of taxes, fees, and requirements of additional insurance, the use and indirect coercion to use would be less profitable and less widespread, while additional funds thus created could be allocated to meet basic medical needs and/or education.

Principles of Justice as the Basis for Public Policy on Psychopharmacological Cognitive Enhancement

ABSTRACT The paper provides a brief conceptual analysis of the debate on psycho-pharmacological cognitive enhancement from the point of view of public reason as it is construed in contemporary political philosophy. The author argues that the strong reasonable disagreement that marks authenticity, posthumanist and “playing God” arguments stems from their presuppositions in religious, ethical or metaphysical comprehensive doctrines, whereas the principles of justice could be the basis for an “overlapping consensus” in the context of regulating use of cognition enhancement drugs for non-therapeutic purposes. The analysis of requirements of justice points to a conclusion that discouraging the use of psycho-pharmacological cognitive enhancements would be the most legitimate public policy. The author offers a model of such a policy: with the imposition of taxes, fees and requirements of additional insurance, the use and indirect coercion to use would be less profitable and less wide-spread, while additional funds thus created could be allocated to meet basic medical needs.

Cognitive Enhancement and Academic Misconduct: A Study Exploring Their Frequency and Relationship

We investigated the acceptability and use frequency of cognitive enhancement medication and three different types of academic misconduct (plagiarism, cheating, and falsifying/fabricating data). Data collected from a web-based survey of German university students were used in our analysis. Moral acceptability of cognitive enhancers was relatively low and moderate for academic misconduct. The correlation between these measures was moderately weak. The use frequency of cognitive enhancers was lower than for academic misconduct and was (very) lightly correlated with the occurrences of reported plagiarism and fabrication/falsification. A higher acceptability of each act was associated with a higher use frequency of each act.

The ADC of Moral Judgment: Opening the Black Box of Moral Intuitions With Heuristics About Agents, Deeds, and Consequences

This article proposes a novel integrative approach to moral judgment and a related model that could explain how unconscious heuristic processes are transformed into consciously accessible moral intuitions. Different hypothetical cases have been tested empirically to evoke moral intuitions that support principles from competing moral theories. We define and analyze the types of intuitions that moral theories and studies capture: those focusing on agents (A), deeds (D), and consequences (C). The integrative ADC approach uses the heuristic principle of “attribute substitution” to explain how people make intuitive judgments. The target attributes of moral judgments are moral blameworthiness and praiseworthiness, which are substituted with more accessible and computable information about an agents virtues and vices, right/wrong deeds, and good/bad consequences. The processes computing this information are unconscious and inaccessible, and therefore explaining how they provide input for moral intuitions is a key problem. We analyze social heuristics identified in the literature and offer an outline for a new model of moral judgment. Simple social heuristics triggered by morally salient cues rely on three distinct processes (role-model entity, action analysis, and consequence tallying—REACT) in order to compute the moral valence of specific intuitive responses (A, D, and C). These are then rapidly combined to form an intuitive judgment that could guide quick decision making. The ADC approach and REACT model can clarify a wide set of data from empirical moral psychology and could inform future studies on moral judgment, as well as case assessments and discussions about issues causing “deadlocked” moral intuitions.

Nudging Without Ethical Fudging: Clarifying Physician Obligations to Avoid Ethical Compromise

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Porous or Contextualized Autonomy? Knowledge Can Empower Autonomous Moral Agents.

Porous or Contextualized Autonomy? Knowledge Can Empower Autonomous Moral Agents Eric Racine & Veljko Dubljević To cite this article: Eric Racine & Veljko Dubljević (2016) Porous or Contextualized Autonomy? Knowledge Can Empower Autonomous Moral Agents, The American Journal of Bioethics, 16:2, 48-50, DOI: 10.1080/15265161.2015.1120800 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15265161.2015.1120800

“Clock Shock,” Motivational Enhancement, and Performance Maintenance in Adderall Use

The article by Scott Vrecko (2013) contributes toward the elucidation of a neglected issue in the debate on cognition enhancement drugs, namely, the exact nature of the effects experienced by users...