title: If I could just stop loving you: anti-love biotechnology and the ethics of a chemical breakup.
abstract: "Love hurts"-as the saying goes-and a certain amount of pain and difficulty in intimate relationships is unavoidable. Sometimes it may even be beneficial, since adversity can lead to personal growth, self-discovery, and a range of other components of a life well-lived. But other times, love can be downright dangerous. It may bind a spouse to her domestic abuser, draw an unscrupulous adult toward sexual involvement with a child, put someone under the insidious spell of a cult leader, and even inspire jealousy-fueled homicide. How might these perilous devotions be diminished? The ancients thought that treatments such as phlebotomy, exercise, or bloodletting could "cure" an individual of love. But modern neuroscience and emerging developments in psychopharmacology open up a range of possible interventions that might actually work. These developments raise profound moral questions about the potential uses-and misuses-of such anti-love biotechnology. In this article, we describe a number of prospective love-diminishing interventions, and offer a preliminary ethical framework for dealing with them responsibly should they arise.
authors.affiliation: a University of Oxford.
authors.forename: Brian D
authors.initials: BD
authors.lastname: Earp
authors.forename: Olga A
authors.initials: OA
authors.lastname: Wudarczyk
authors.forename: Anders
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sandberg
authors.forename: Julian
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Savulescu
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000818:Animals; D001709:Biotechnology / Q000941:ethics* / Q000639:trends; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D012739:Gonadal Steroid Hormones / Q000378:metabolism; D006716:Homosexuality; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D007989:Libido / Q000187:drug effects*; D008149:Love; D008297:Male; D009769:Object Attachment; D011619:Psychotropic Drugs; D012725:Sexual Behavior / Q000187:drug effects; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000209:etiology* / Q000517:prevention & control
chemical_list: D012739:Gonadal Steroid Hormones; D011619:Psychotropic Drugs