Military Review English Edition January-February 2015 | Page 95

ENHANCED SOLDIER

Why Are Ethics Important to the
Enhanced Soldier?
A 2010 report prepared for United States Army
Aeromedical Research Laboratory about the appropriateness of cognition-enhancing drugs for troops
says that the Army has tested modanifil and caffeine (to promote wakefulness) for use in military
operations and that Army policy already approves
some drugs for cognition enhancement.2 The report’s
authors expect that more drugs will be considered
for enhancing warfighters. However, the authors
barely mention the ethical concerns of using drugs
such as modanifil for enhancement rather than for
their intended therapeutic purposes. Moreover, their
review of the literature and issues on ethics is based
on about six sources and takes up about one page of
a 50-page report.
A definition of enhancement. According to the
Oxford Dictionaries Online, enhancement is “an increase or improvement in quality, value, or extent.”3
One working definition of an enhancement as it
might apply to warfighters, according to Lin, is that
“an enhancement is a medical or biological intervention to the body designed to improve performance,
appearance, or capability besides what is necessary to
achieve, sustain, or restore health.”4
Dangers of enhancement to soldiers. The
risks that accompany enhancement are not new.
Throughout history, armies have used risky enhancements such as addictive drugs to improve
soldiers’ performance in combat. For example,
high-dose caffeine, modanifil, and amphetamines
all have been shown to be highly effective in temporarily reversing mental performance degradation in
sleep-deprived soldiers.
Even in the early days of Western civilization,
our mythology idealized the super soldier. The story
of the nearly invulnerable Achilles in the battle for
Troy, which originated circa 850 BCE, is still told
today. The search for the enhanced Achilles occurred during World War II, accompanied by ethical
problems as well.

The Enhanced Soldier in World War II
The U.S. military and other armies during World
War II gave amphetamines to soldiers to prevent
what was called “battle fatigue.”5 Armies used
MILITARY REVIEW  January-February 2015

amphetamines “to combat fatigue, depression, and to
enhance endurance performance.”6
German Wehrmacht. One of the first large-scale
attempts to enhance soldiers involved the German
Wehrmacht.7 Andreas Ulrich describes how the
German military provided a stimulant called Pervitin
to soldiers in combat.8 Pervitin, a methamphetamine,
was generally viewed as a proven drug to be used
when soldiers were likely to be subjected to extreme stress. Ulrich reports that a memorandum for
German navy medical officers stated,
Every medical officer must be aware that
Pervitin is a highly differentiated and powerful stimulant, a tool that enables him, at
any time, to actively and effectively help certain individuals within his range of influence
achieve above-average performance.9
Ulrich also reports,
between April and July of 1940, more than
35 million tablets of Pervitin and Isophan (a
slightly modified version) were shipped to the
German army and air force. Some of the tablets, each containing three milligrams of active substance, were sent to the Wehrmacht’s
medical divisions under the code name OBM,
and then distributed directly to the troops.
The packages were labeled “Stimulant,” and
the instructions recommended a dose of one
to two tablets “only as needed, to maintain
sleeplessness.”10
Ulrich states that although Pervitin had begun
to be available only by prescription by the end of
1939, it still was consumed in enormous amounts.11
Serious health damage resulted, including fatal heart
attacks in some German soldiers. Therefore, in June
1941, Pervitin was designated as subject to the opium
law. After that, illicit consumption and illegal sale
of Pervitin were punished as a crime. Medical officers had to follow strict orders concerning the use of
Pervitin and its distribution to soldiers.12
Eventually, the German medical officers were
told about the danger of addiction to amphetamines, and use declined. However, this does not
mean there were no more problems with Pervitin.
Officers and common soldiers were punished for
misusing it or remained addicted, some even years
after the war had ended.13
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