Chill Pill

We have drugs available virtually off the shelf to enhance physical ability, expand memory and increase cognitive performance. So, why not a drug that would make us more compassionate, caring and kind as well? Moral steroids, if you will. It's not a joke. In a recent issue of the 'British Journal of Psychiatry', psychiatrist Sean Spence argues that in the future people might want to choose to be more moral and that the rapidly advancing field of pharmacology could help them get there faster. For instance, why should a responsible person who takes serious account of his behaviour and its likely impact upon others not choose to influence that by popping a couple of pills? Actually, drugs are already doing that whenever humans knowingly use them as a means to improve their conduct. We may prefer not to see it quite that way, but if a man with a sociopathic personality disorder - someone we would normally call a jerk - takes antipsychotic medication to control impulsive behaviour and aggressive tendencies on a date, he's only doing it to lessen the chances of harming someone else. After all, it's the decent thing to do. But is it wrong to have drugs specifically designed to target and increase a pro-social feeling and behaviour such as kindness or altruism? In other words, should pharmacology be used to improve ethical standards? Some argue that such mental manipulation would be unnatural and only render us "artificially" moral since the drugs would make us lose our ability to choose an honourable quality on our own. Is it really better if people lose this choice for the good of the collective? At the same time, it can be argued that if some chemicals outside our body can be made to control our level of social responsibility, then it would be fairly safe to assume that comparable chemicals inside the body are already a source of similar control. And, if so, then perhaps we never had a choice to begin with. Also, can people really have any objection if it was suddenly easier to become a better person? Isn't that what some psychological and semi-religious techniques like anger management, meditation and mindfulness which have proven benefits in reducing the impact of negative and destructive emotions try to inculcate in us anyway?