Justice, Reciprocity and the Internalisation of Punishment in Victims of Crime
AbstractThis paper is published as part of special issue on the theme of ‘justice without retribution’. Any attempt to consider how justice may be achieved without retribution has to begin with a consideration of what we mean by justice. The most powerful pleas for justice usually come from those who feel that they have been harmed by the wrongful acts of others. Thi s paper will explore this intuition about justice and will argue that it arises from the central importance of reciprocity, in the form of equity, balance and fairness, in human relationships. This is expressed in our image of justice, one of whose core sy...
Source: Neuroethics - May 2, 2018 Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research
Bottom Up Ethics - Neuroenhancement in Education and Employment
AbstractNeuroenhancement involves the use of neurotechnologies to improve cognitive, affective or behavioural functioning, where these are not judged to be clinically impaired. Questions about enhancement have become one of the key topics of neuroethics over the past decade. The current study draws on in-depth public engagement activities in ten European countries giving a bottom-up perspective on the ethics and desirability of enhancement. This informed the design of an online contrastive vignette experiment that was administered to representative samples of 1000 respondents in the ten countries and the United States. The...
Source: Neuroethics - May 1, 2018 Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research
Neuroethics, Cognitive Technologies and the Extended Mind Perspective
AbstractCurrent debates in neuroethics engage with extremely diverse technologies, for some of which it is a point of contention whether they should be a topic for neuroethics at all. In this article, I will evaluate extended mind theory ’s claim of being able to define the scope of neuroethics’ domain as well as determining the extension of an individual’s mind via its so-called trust and glue criteria. I argue that a) extending the domain of neuroethics by this manoeuvre endangers the theoretical consistency of neuroethics a nd b) the current state of the trust and glue criteria can introduce a bias towards oversta...
Source: Neuroethics - April 21, 2018 Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research
An Analysis of the Impact of Brain-Computer Interfaces on Autonomy
AbstractResearch conducted on Brain-Computer Interfaces (BCIs) has grown considerably during the last decades. With the help of BCIs, users can (re)gain a wide range of functions. Our aim in this paper is to analyze the impact of BCIs on autonomy. To this end, we introduce three abilities that most accounts of autonomy take to be essential: (1) the ability to use information and knowledge to produce reasons; (2) the ability to ensure that intended actions are effectively realized (control); and (3) the ability to enact intentions within concrete relationships and contexts. We then consider the impact of BCI technology on e...
Source: Neuroethics - April 18, 2018 Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research
On the normative insignificance of neuroscience and dual-process theory
AbstractAccording to the dual-process account of moral judgment, deontological and utilitarian judgments stem from two different cognitive systems. Deontological judgments are effortless, intuitive and emotion-driven, whereas utilitarian judgments are effortful, reasoned and dispassionate. The most notable evidence for dual-process theory comes from neuroimaging studies by Joshua Greene and colleagues. Greene has suggested that these empirical findings undermine deontology and support utilitarianism. It has been pointed out, however, that the most promising interpretation of his argument does not make use of the empirical ...
Source: Neuroethics - April 4, 2018 Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research
Benign Biological Interventions to Reduce Offending
This article reviews the empirical literature on two biological intervention approaches, omega-3 supplementation and transcranial direct current stimulation. Emerging research on these relatively benign interventions suggests that increased omega-3 intake through dietary intervention and prefrontal upregulation using non-invasive brain stimulation may show some initial promise in reducing antisocial behavior. The ethical issues related to mandated and offered biological interventions within the criminal justice system are discussed. (Source: Neuroethics)
Source: Neuroethics - April 2, 2018 Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research
Ethics of Deep Brain Stimulation in Adolescent Patients with Refractory Tourette Syndrome: a Systematic Review and Two Case Discussions
ConclusionClinical practice should be accompanied by ongoing ethical reflection, preferably covering not only theoretical thought but providing also insights in the views and perspectives of those concerned, that is patients, family members and professionals. (Source: Neuroethics)
Source: Neuroethics - March 23, 2018 Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research
Justice without Retribution: An Epistemic Argument against Retributive Criminal Punishment
AbstractWithin the United States, the most prominent justification for criminal punishment isretributivism. This retributivist justification for punishment maintains that punishment of a wrongdoer is justified for the reason that shedeserves something bad to happen to her just because she has knowingly done wrong —this could include pain, deprivation, or death. For the retributivist, it is thebasic desert attached to the criminal ’s immoral action alone that provides the justification for punishment. This means that the retributivist position is not reducible to consequentialist considerations nor in justifying punishm...
Source: Neuroethics - March 15, 2018 Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research
Medical Decision Making by Patients in the Locked-in Syndrome
AbstractThe locked-in syndrome (LIS) is a state of profound paralysis with preserved awareness of self and environment who typically results from a brain stem stroke. Although patients in LIS have great difficulty communicating, their consciousness, cognition, and language usually remain intact. Medical decision-making by LIS patients is compromised, not by cognitive impairment, but by severe communication impairment. Former systems of communication that permitted LIS patients to make only “yes” or “no” responses to questions was sufficient to validate their consent for simple medical decisions but not for conseque...
Source: Neuroethics - March 14, 2018 Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research
Phantom Sensations: A Neurophenomenological Exploration of Body Memory
AbstractThis paper brings neuroscientific experiments into relation with concepts from phenomenological philosophy to investigate phantom sensations from the perspective of embodied subjectivity. Using a mirror device to create intersensory effects in subjects experiencing phantom sensations, one can create illusions aiming at alleviating phantom pain. Neuroplasticity as a general property of the brain and cortical remapping as a specific mechanism underlying the success of this procedure are interpreted with the phenomenological notions of body image, body schema, and body memory. It is argued that a phantom can be unders...
Source: Neuroethics - March 8, 2018 Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research
Deep Brain Stimulation, Self and Relational Autonomy
AbstractQuestions about the nature of self and self-consciousness are closely aligned with questions about the nature of autonomy. These concepts have deep roots in traditional philosophical discussions that concern metaphysics, epistemology and ethics. They also have direct relevance to practical considerations about informed consent in medical contexts. In this paper, with reference to understanding specific side effects of deep brain stimulation (DBS) treatment in cases of, for example, Parkinson ’s Disease, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, and Major Depressive Disorder, I’ll argue that it is best to frame discussions...
Source: Neuroethics - March 6, 2018 Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research
Social Policy and Cognitive Enhancement: Lessons from Chess
AbstractShould the development of pharmacological cognitive enhancers raise worries about doping in cognitively demanding activities? In this paper, we argue against using current evidence relating to enhancement to justify a ban on cognitive enhancers using the example of chess. It is a mistake to assume that enhanced cognitive functioning on psychometric testing is transferable to chess performance because cognitive expertise is highly complex and in large part not merely a function of the sum specific sub-processes. A deeper reason to doubt that pharmacological cognitive enhancers would be as significant in mind sports ...
Source: Neuroethics - February 22, 2018 Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research
Introduction: Political Implications of Moral Enhancement
(Source: Neuroethics)
Source: Neuroethics - January 13, 2018 Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research
Beyond Moral Responsibility to a System that Works
AbstractMoving beyond the retributive system requires clearing away some of the basic assumptions that form the foundation of that system: most importantly, the assumption of moral responsibility, which is held in place by deep and destructive belief in a just world. Efforts to justify moral responsibility typically appeal to some version of self-making, and that appeal is only plausible through limits on inquiry. Eliminating moral responsibility removes a major impediment to deeper inquiry and understanding of the biological, social, and environmental causes of both vicious and virtuous behavior. The resources for moving ...
Source: Neuroethics - December 30, 2017 Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research
The Moral Importance of Reflective Empathy
AbstractThis is a reply to Jesse Prinz and Paul Bloom ’s skepticism about the moral importance of empathy. It concedes that empathy is spontaneously biased to individuals who are spatio-temporally close, as well as discriminatory in other ways, and incapable of accommodating large numbers of individuals. But it is argued that we could partly correct these shortcomings of empathy by a guidance of reason because empathy for others consists in imagining what they feel, and, importantly, such acts of imagination can bevoluntary– and, thus, under the influence of reflection – as well asautomatic. Since empathizing with ot...
Source: Neuroethics - December 15, 2017 Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research
