It is likely that drugs created to treat illness will also be able to enhance our natural abilities. Medication to treat Alzheimer‘s disease is likely to improve considerably normal memory function as well. Stimulating medicines, now used to treat children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, also increase the ability of the ‘normal’ brain to concentrate. One‘s emotional state can also be improved. The new generation of pharmaceutical drugs to treat depression also have an effect on people who do not suffer from depression: people who take them are less concerned with small everyday worries and live life more optimistically and with more confidence.

Instead of being used for therapy, these drugs might one day be employed for enhancing the normal body, brain and psyche. With all the imagined benefits of taking these drugs and ‘enhancing’ ourselves, is it inevitable that they will be taken for this purpose? Can we, or even should we, try to limit this?
The question is certainly valid if it appears that these drugs are not harmful. What is wrong with increasing memory, intelligence, attention levels, ability to concentrate? Or even to enhance our creativity, empathy or sociability? We already take refuge daily in coffee, cigarettes or a glass of Chardonnay. Don’t we do this mainly for the effect of the caffeine, the nicotine or the alcohol on the brain? Is a pill different from a cup of coffee?

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