title: Religious perspectives on the use of psychopharmaceuticals as an enhancement technology.
abstract: The use of psychopharmaceuticals as an enhancement technology has been the focus of attention in the bioethics literature. However, there has been little examination of the challenges that this practice creates for religious traditions that place importance on questions of being, authenticity, and identity. We asked expert commentators from six major world religions to consider the issues raised by psychopharmaceuticals as an enhancement technology. These commentaries reveal that in assessing the appropriate place of medical therapies, religious traditions, like secular perspectives, rely upon ideas about health and disease and about normal human behavior. But unlike secular perspectives, faith traditions explicitly concern themselves with ways in which medicine should or should not be used to live a "good life".
authors: Scott J
authors: SJ
authors: Fitzpatrick
authors: Christopher F C
authors: CF
authors: Jordens
authors: Ian H
authors: IH
authors: Kerridge
authors: Damien
authors: D
authors: Keown
authors: James J
authors: JJ
authors: Walter
authors: Paul
authors: P
authors: Nelson
authors: Mohamad
authors: M
authors: Abdalla
authors: Lisa Soleymani
authors: LS
authors: Lehmann
authors: Deepak
authors: D
authors: Sarma
mesh_terms: D024803:Biomedical Enhancement / Q000379:methods*; D002016:Buddhism; D002410:Catholicism; D018596:Hinduism; D006801:Humans; D007514:Islam; D007599:Judaism; D033303:Protestantism; D011619:Psychotropic Drugs / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D012068:Religion and Medicine
chemical_list: D011619:Psychotropic Drugs
references: Am J Bioeth. 2005 Summer;5(3):29-31; discussion W4-9
references: 16006368
references: Hastings Cent Rep. 1998 Jan-Feb;28(1):S1-S17
references: 9539044
references: Biol Psychiatry. 2003 Jan 15;53(2):112-20
references: 12547466
references: Med J Aust. 2000 Nov 6;173(9):458-61
references: 11149300
references: Bioethics. 2008 Aug;22(7):355-63
references: 18445089
references: Origins. 1983 Nov 17;13(23):386-9
references: 11652288
references: Nature. 2008 Dec 11;456(7223):702-5
references: 19060880
references: Perspect Biol Med. 2006 Autumn;49(4):515-23
references: 17146136
references: Pharmacol Biochem Behav. 2001 Mar;68(3):611-27
references: 11325419
references: Psychopharmacology (Berl). 2000 Jun;150(3):272-82
references: 10923755
references: Hastings Cent Rep. 2000 Mar-Apr;30(2):13-8
references: 10763466