Phenomenological Analysis of a Japanese Professional Caregiver Specialized in Patients with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis
AbstractThe present article is based on a interview with a Japanese experienced caregiver who specializes in patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), which generally leads to the locked-in syndrome (LIS). Professional caregivers for ALS patients with ventilator experience two particular temporalities in their practice. First, they must monitor the patient continuously during a seven-hour stay. Because a single problem in the ventilator can have fatal consequences, the care of an ALS patient with a ventilator (who can neither speak nor push the nurse call button) requires long periods of sustained concentration. S...
Source: Neuroethics - July 5, 2018 Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research
Debates over Magnetic Resonance Imaging in Mental Health Evaluations at Guant ánamo
AbstractEthical debates over the use of mental health knowledge and practice at the Guant ánamo Bay detention facility have mostly revolved around military clinicians sharing detainee medical information with interrogators, falsifying death certificates in interrogations, and disagreements over whether the Central Intelligence Agency’s (CIA) “enhanced interrogation techniques” vio lated bioethical principles to do no harm. However, debates over the use of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in the mental health evaluations of detainees have received little attention. This paper provides the first known analysis of such...
Source: Neuroethics - July 3, 2018 Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research
Deep Brain Stimulation: Inducing Self-Estrangement
AbstractDespite growing evidence that a significant number of patients living with Parkison ’s disease experience neuropsychiatric changes following Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) treatment, the phenomenon remains poorly understood and largely unexplored in the literature. To shed new light on this phenomenon, we used qualitative methods grounded in phenomenology to conduct in-depth, semi- structured interviews with 17 patients living with Parkinson’s Disease who had undergone DBS. Our study found that patients appear to experience postoperative DBS-induced changes in the form of self-estrangement. Using the insights fro...
Source: Neuroethics - July 1, 2018 Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research
Higher and Lower Pleasures Revisited: Evidence from Neuroscience
AbstractThis paper discusses J.S. Mill ’s distinction between higher and lower pleasures, and suggests that recent neuroscientific evidence counts against it. (Source: Neuroethics)
Source: Neuroethics - July 1, 2018 Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research
A History of the Locked-In-Syndrome: Ethics in the Making of Neurological Consciousness, 1880-Present
AbstractExtensive scholarship has described the historical and ethical imperatives shaping the emergence of the brain death criteria in the 1960s and 1970s. This essay explores the longer intellectual history that shaped theories of neurological consciousness from the late-nineteenth century to that period, and argues that a significant transformation occurred in the elaboration of those theories in the 1960s and after, the period when various disturbances of consciousness were discovered or thoroughly elaborated. Numerous historical conditions can be identified and attributed to the production of the new theories that eme...
Source: Neuroethics - June 19, 2018 Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research
Deflating the “DBS causes personality changes” bubble
AbstractThe idea that deep brain stimulation (DBS) induces changes to personality, identity, agency, authenticity, autonomy and self (PIAAAS) is so deeply entrenched within neuroethics discourses that it has become an unchallenged narrative. In this article, we critically assess evidence about putative effects of DBS on PIAAAS. We conducted a literature review of more than 1535 articles to investigate the prevalence of scientific evidence regarding these potential DBS-induced changes. While we observed an increase in the number of publications in theoretical neuroethics that mention putative DBS-induced changes to patients...
Source: Neuroethics - June 19, 2018 Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research
Neuroethics and Philosophy in Responsible Research and Innovation: The Case of the Human Brain Project
AbstractResponsible Research and Innovation (RRI) is an important ethical, legal, and political theme for the European Commission. Although variously defined, it is generally understood as an interactive process that engages social actors, researchers, and innovators who must be mutually responsive and work towards the ethical permissibility of the relevant research and its products. The framework of RRI calls for contextually addressing not just research and innovation impact but also the background research process, specially the societal visions underlying it and the norms and priorities that shape scientific agendas. T...
Source: Neuroethics - June 7, 2018 Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research
Forensic Practitioners ’ Views on Stimulating Moral Development and Moral Growth in Forensic Psychiatric Care
AbstractIn the context of debates on (forensic) psychiatry issues pertaining to moral dimensions of (forensic) psychiatric health care are frequently discussed. These debates invite reflection on the question whether forensic practitioners have a role in stimulating patients ’ moral development and moral growth in the context of forensic psychiatric and psychological treatment and care. We conducted a qualitative study to examine to what extent forensic practitioners consider moral development and moral growth to be a part of their current professional practices and t o what extent they think that stimulating moral devel...
Source: Neuroethics - May 23, 2018 Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research
Can they Feel? The Capacity for Pain and Pleasure in Patients with Cognitive Motor Dissociation
AbstractUnresponsive wakefulness syndrome is a disorder of consciousness wherein a patient is awake, but completely non-responsive at the bedside. However, research has shown that a minority of these patients remain aware, and can demonstrate their awareness via functional neuroimaging; these patients are referred to as having ‘cognitive motor dissociation’ (CMD). Unfortunately, we have little insight into the subjective experiences of these patients, making it difficult to determine how best to promote their well-being. In this paper, I argue that the capacity to experience pain or pleasure (sentience) is a key compo ...
Source: Neuroethics - May 21, 2018 Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research
Big Brain Data: On the Responsible Use of Brain Data from Clinical and Consumer-Directed Neurotechnological Devices
AbstractThe focus of this paper are the ethical, legal and social challenges for ensuring the responsible use of “big brain data”—the recording, collection and analysis of individuals’ brain data on a large scale with clinical and consumer-directed neurotechnological devices. First, I highlight the benefits of big data and machine learning analytics in neuroscience for basic and translational research. Then, I describe some of the technological, social and psychological barriers for securing brain data from unwarranted access. In this context, I then examine ways in which safeguards at the hardware and software lev...
Source: Neuroethics - May 19, 2018 Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research
Biocriminal Justice: Exploring Public Attitudes to Criminal Rehabilitation Using Biomedical Treatments
AbstractBiomedical interventions, such as pharmacological and neurological interventions, are increasingly being offered or considered for offer to offenders in the criminal justice system as a means of reducing recidivism and achieving offender rehabilitation through treatment. An offender ’s consent to treatment may affect decisions about diversion from the criminal justice system, sentence or parole, and so hope for a preferable treatment in the criminal justice system may influence the offender’s consent. This thematic analysis of three focus group interviews conducted in Canad a with members of the public investig...
Source: Neuroethics - May 12, 2018 Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research
Should Neuroscience Inform Judgements of Decision-Making Capacity?
This article focuses on the assessment of capacity in brain injury patients who have profound communication impairments, however, the overarching aim of the article is to highlight the potential use of neuroscience to improve our understanding of the relationship between cognition and decision-making capacity. (Source: Neuroethics)
Source: Neuroethics - May 9, 2018 Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research
Enhancing the Nature-of-Activities Account of Enhancement
AbstractMany find it intuitive that those who use enhancements like steroids and Adderall in Olympic weightlifting and education are due less praise than those who perform equally well without using these enhancements. Nonetheless, it is not easy to coherently explain why one might be justifiably due less praise for using these technologies to enhance one ’s performance. Justifications for this intuition which rely on concerns regarding authenticity, cheating, or shifts in who is responsible for the performance face serious problems. Santoni de Sio et al., however, have recently defended a justification for this intuitio...
Source: Neuroethics - May 3, 2018 Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research
