‘Morality pills’ may be the US’s best shot at ending the coronavirus pandemic, according to one ethicist
… When someone chooses not to follow public health guidelines around the coronavirus, they’re defecting from the public good
… might work, if defectors could be coerced into adhering to them
… Could a psychoactive pill be the solution to the pandemic?
… What if researchers developed and delivered a moral enhancer rather than an immunity enhancer?
… The psychoactive substances act on your ability to reason about what the right thing to do is, or your ability to be empathetic or altruistic or cooperative
… As some have argued, a solution would be to make moral enhancement compulsory or administer it secretly, perhaps via the water supply
… But a strategy like this one could be a way out of this pandemic, a future outbreak or the suffering associated with climate change. That’s why we should be thinking of it now