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by Donald B. Ardell, Ph. D.
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Wellness in the Headlines
(Don's Report to the World)

An Ethical Issue of a Wellness Nature

Saturday November 18, 2000

Ethics are big these days. Candidates for high and low office point to the lack of ethics displayed by their opponents and all the great conflicts (Middle East fighting, scientific advances such as the cloning of Dolly the sheep, product liabilities lawsuits, for example) are contested in part with arguments about the twisted ethics of one party or the other. All of this leads me to ask: Is there a hot issue of a wellness nature that could or should be argued from an ethical perspective? What do you think? Know of any?

I can think of one. But it's a hypothetical wellness ethical issue. Permit me to run it past you.

Suppose I had discovered a medication that, if swallowed daily via a vitamin-like pill, had the power to induce a wellness lifestyle! That is, the taker of this magical pill, regardless of current lifestyle habits, would instantly become addicted to thoughts, feelings and habit patterns consistent with and supportive of self-managing lifestyle artistry? Suppose further that I could produce this pill at little cost--a week's supply (at one a day) would cost less than a nickel! Would this not be a 100 percent good thing?

Before deciding, let me add a bit to the proposition, in order to make it a more interesting ethical matter to address.

As usual, the Devil lurks in the details -- let me explain how my magical wellness pill might work. Neuroscience is the key. I did a bit of research and learned that a really neat molecular pill could, if I got it just right, tweak all the right brain neuroreceptors and compounds. While dabbling in my lab in Transylvania during a dark and stormy night (with lots and lots of lightning bolts striking all about), let's pretend I developed this pretty darn terrific wellness pill.

The key to my pill is in the way it works. This is also the part that makes me wonder about the ethics of putting it on the market. I need your help to resolve this. Your assignment is to advise if it is appropriate to go forward with my discovery.

What happens is that if one takes my pill and then acts in a manner NOT consistent with healthy behaviors of a self-managing nature, bad things happen. Certain behaviors (smoking, drinking too much, failure to exercise, shifting responsibility and so on) induce a bit of an emotional low. Eat a lot of junk food, take yourself too seriously, don't exercise your sense of humor, fail to look on the bright side of life, ignore the quest for meaning and purpose and you could throw up!

The drug causes a receptor site in the brain to become engaged and stimulated by positive initiatives associated with wellness. It works by manufacturing vaccines that alter neuron signaling in an area called the nucleus accumbens, which seems to mount an immune response against self-pity, morose and peevish reactions and all tendencies to whine, wallow or whimper. Dopamine, serotonin and norepinephrine transporter systems replete with brain receptors bind with and thus reinforce an enthusiasm for the behavioral therapy provided by the recommendations of "Don's Reports to the World" and similar enlightened pronouncements!

Each time you take the wellness pill, you feel like proclaiming the wonders of the concept and practice; however, you also know that if you fall off the proverbial wellness wagon, well, there will be certain torments and tribulations to pay. The pill is designed to create highly aversive reactions to worseness thoughts and deeds. Preliminary brain scans of lowlifes taking this pill, which I might market under the brand name"Wellagra," would illuminate certain vital brain regions most affected by the chemicals in this pill. Subsequent analysis to isolate this effect would show that it works in part as a worseness antibody vaccine, a sort of combination antidepressant and "pro-enthusiast" or wellness-inducing wonder mix.

Wellagra could be taken with other appropriate drugs, it is nontoxic, and while IT is not addictive, the craving for wellness lifestyles that it induces certainly is! Thus, the ethical dilemma. Is it right to induce this dependency on wellness?

What do you think? Would YOU take such a pill? Is this the easy way to wellness that should be discouraged for ethical reasons?

I have not actually discovered such a pill, but it would be good to work out the ethics involved first, just to be on safe ground if I did. What is the morality involved with releasing Wellagra to any and all seekers and without a doctor's permission, the blessing of clergy or other safeguards?

Am I tampering with nature or God's plan to induce wellness and eliminate worseness? The consequences of this great debate are far reaching. I hope to hear from you. Be well.

Domain: mental
Subdomain: mental health

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