Ritalin in the Water

[n2doc]

By Jonah Lehrer August 6, 2010 | 2:11 pm | Categories: Frontal Cortex

One of my blogging policies is to not engage with trolls. I don’t answer their nasty emails or respond to their comments. Life is too short. But every once in a great while, a troll can send me somewhere interesting. And that’s what happened in the dozens of recent comments that referenced the same “white paper” by the Oxford bioethicist Julian Savulescu, “Fluoride and the Future: Population Level Cognitive Enhancement”. Here’s a sample comment:

Jonah’s friend and colleague Savulescu suggests that the government add ritalin and prozac to the public water supply. Now, sadly if I speak against that dangerous idea I am labeled a blowhard and conspiracy theorist. Fine. I’m ok with that. Guilty as charged. Please read Julian Savulescu’s white paper “Fluoride and the Future: Population Level Cognitive Enhancement”. He’s your friend Jonah.

For the record, I don’t know Professor Savulescu. So I googled this “white paper” – apparently, a “white paper” is how conspiracy theorists make an academic blog post sound really scary – and found this utilitarian proposal:

Fluoridation of the water is an example of human enhancement. Tooth decay is a part of the human condition but we now have the ability to prevent it through a safe, cheap, easy intervention – adding fluoride to the water. Many parts of the civilized world have been employing this strategy for decades with dramatic success. England is now debating whether to fully embrace this simple enhancement technology.



Read More http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/08/ritalin-in-the-water/


interesting discussion, worth reading.