When thinking about medicating children, I often recall a New York Times article by Alan Schwarz that begins: “When Dr. Michael Anderson hears about his low-income patients struggling in elementary school, he usually gives them a taste of some powerful medicine: Adderall.”

I recall being struck (as I still am) by the possibilities of medicating the brain as they run parallel to the benefits of medicating the body with performance-enhancing drugs. But what happens when those drugs help students who might not otherwise have the same opportunities to excel in ways their peers with different home and life circumstances can? I wish Philip had pressed into this issue in the article “Drugs that enhance student achievement” because it creates the container in which the ethical dilemma of offering these drugs to children can be debated. In addition to the problems of adding foreign substances to the body is the complication of which bodies are acquiring, carrying and ingesting these substances. Who is allowed access? Who grants access? Who mainains a system of accountability? What might equality look like here? These prickly issues animate Todd’s understanding of Modafinil as he says:

‘I’ll do it every time because it helps so much and doesn’t seem to be illegal’ (Philip, 2006).

I would love to hear more thoughts from folks in class on this issue as its ethical implications seem to contradict the legal and moral justifications.