Almost the entire history of human civilization has been affected by substances sought out or created to alter our bodies and our minds. Humans have been cultivating tobacco, coffee, and marijuana for over 10,000 years. Evidence for our use of alcohol and opium go back "only" 4000 years.
How much of modern medical treatments depend on the drugs that pharmaceutical companies produce? Think about taxol or cisplatin for treating cancer or anesthetics for surgery. SSRIs such as Prozac, Paxil, and Zoloft have enabled millions of people to live more normal lives. Many more who suffer from HIV/AIDS wouldn't have lives at all if it weren't for protease inhibitors and RTIs.
Steroids are used widely in the management of pain, but are best known in America today for the ethical questions they have prompted because of their widespread use by professional athletes. These questions force us to consider not only what is "fair," but point toward much more challenging questions in our immediate future of what it means to be human.
Selectively poisoning many competing species is another aspect of mankind's forays into drug development: antibiotics, herbicides, insecticides and fungicides are all critical to current agricultural practices. What effects do these have on long-term human health? Is the widespread use of these compounds shortsighted, leading us toward an inevitable catastrophe and mass starvation?
The development of reliable chemical means of birth control has had an enormous impact on humanity: who has children, how many, and how often? The effects that contraceptives have had on family planning, cultural values, and the ability of families to raise themselves out of grinding poverty, will continue far into the future. How ethical is it for governments to refuse access by the poor to birth control? What effects might this have on political stability and economics in these countries? The surrounding region? The world?
"Bioprospecting" is a term used to describe the process of drug discovery based on collecting samples from large numbers of plants and animals in order to test them for possible new drugs. But if a company develops a drug from a species in a third-world country, especially if they selected it for testing on the basis of its use as a folk remedy by local peoples, who has the rights to profit from it?
As you can see, drugs touch all of our lives in myriad ways: not only do they play a central role in human health, but also in our history, economics, social systems, politics, religion, art and morality. They have saved lives, made fortunes, helped advance civilization, and at the same time have caused the deaths of untold numbers of people, fueled the descent of many into abject poverty, and are poised to irrevocably alter our way of life, not necessarily for the better. What should we do—what can we do—beyond simply watching the drug-dependent parade of life?
Classes were held in the HILL, Room 410
Tuesdays from 8:55 am to 10:05 am and Thursdays from 8:55 am to 11:10 am
Four books were required for this course, all of which should be available in the bookstore:
Other readings will be provided throughout the semester.
The Bedford Handbook has an associated website.