On moralizing and hidden agendas: the pot and the kettle in political bioethics.

Henry et al. (2007) present a cogent analysis of the use of propranolol in preventing post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). They express a wide range of unanswered questions regarding this use of propranolol and criticize the report of the President’s Council on Bioethics (2003) on pharmacologic memory suppression on grounds of its obviously conservative agenda. The authors’ greatest concern is the “overmedicalization” of bad memories and the pharmaceutical industry’s encouragement and exploitation of this phenomenon. They argue their case clearly and persuasively, until their unjustified criticisms of the drug industry cast them in the role of pot to the Council’s kettle.