The Role of Neuroscience in the Evaluation of Mental Insanity: on the Controversies in Italy
AbstractIn the present manuscript, we comment upon a paper that strongly criticized an expert report written by the consultants of the defense (two of the authors of the present paper, PP and GS) in a case of pedophilia, in which clinical and neuro-scientific data were used to establish the causal link between brain alterations and onset of criminal behavior. These critiques appear to be based mainly on wrong pieces of information and on a misinterpretation of the logical reasoning adopted by defense consultants. Here we provide a point-by-point reply to the issues raised in the above paper and also discuss the potential r...
Source: Neuroethics - November 21, 2017 Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research
Looking for Neuroethics in Japan
AbstractNeuroethics is a dynamic and still rather young interdisciplinary field involving neuroscience, philosophy, or bioethics, among other academic specialties. It is under a process of institutionalization on a global scale, although not at the same pace in every country. Much literature has been devoted to the discussion of the purpose and relevance of neuroethics as a field, but few attempts have been made to analyze its local conditions of development. This paper describes the advancement of neuroethics in Japan as a case study on the ups and downs of the institutionalization of a new academic field. As one of the p...
Source: Neuroethics - November 4, 2017 Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research
A Critical Review of Methodologies and Results in Recent Research on Belief in Free Will
AbstractThere might be value in examining the phenomenon of free will, without attempting to solve the debate surrounding its existence. Studies have suggested that diminishing belief in free will increases cheating behavior and that basic physiological states such as appetite diminish free will. These findings, if robust, could have important philosophical and ethical implications. Accordingly, we aimed to critically review methodologies and results in the body of literature that speaks to the two following questions: (1) whether certain factors can change belief in free will or not (static or dynamic property of free wil...
Source: Neuroethics - October 28, 2017 Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research
Delusions, Harmful Dysfunctions, and Treatable Conditions
AbstractIt has recently been suggested that delusions be conceived of as symptoms on the harmful dysfunction account of disorder: delusions sometimes arise from dysfunction, but can also arise through normal cognition. Much attention has thus been payed to the question of how we can determine whether a delusion arises from dysfunction as opposed to normal cognition. In this paper, we consider another question, one that remains under-explored: which delusions warrant treatment? On the harmful dysfunction account, this question dissociates from the question about dysfunction —there are a broad range of “treatable conditi...
Source: Neuroethics - October 18, 2017 Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research
Moral Responsibility and Mental Illness: a Call for Nuance
AbstractDoes having a mental disorder, in general, affect whether someone is morally responsible for an action? Many people seem to think so, holding that mental disorders nearly always mitigate responsibility. Against this Na ïve view, we argue for a Nuanced account. The problem is not just that different theories of responsibility yield different verdicts about particular cases. Even when all reasonable theories agree about what’s relevant to responsibility, the ways mental illness can affect behavior are so varied t hat a more nuanced approach is needed. (Source: Neuroethics)
Source: Neuroethics - October 3, 2017 Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research
Biomedical Moral Enhancement – not a Lever without a Fulcrum
AbstractWe argued inUnfit for the Future that moral enhancement – which might include biomedical moral enhancement – is necessary to solve the coordination problem presented by the amelioration of anthropogenic climate change. Stefan Schlag contends that this proposal is self-defeating because the implementation of biomedical moral enhancement poses the same problems as combatting climate change. We reply that it can be seen that this is not so when it is realized that we can be sufficiently morally motivated to form an intentionin advance to act in a certain (moral) way when a situation arises without being sufficient...
Source: Neuroethics - September 2, 2017 Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research
The Irrelevance of a Moral Right to Privacy for Biomedical Moral Enhancement
AbstractIn opposition to what we claimed inUnfit for the Future, Jan Christoph Bublitz argues that people have a right to privacy which stands in the way of the use of biomedical moral enhancement. We reply that it is not clear that he has understood what we mean by a right to privacy, that we were speaking ofmoral and not a legal right to privacy, and that we take a moral right to privacy to be a right against others that they don ’tacquire (and sustain) certain (true) beliefs about us. This is compatible with the fact that themeans they use to acquire beliefs about us, or theuse to which they put these beliefs could vi...
Source: Neuroethics - August 24, 2017 Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research
Autism and Moral Responsibility: Executive Function, Reasons Responsiveness, and Reasons Blockage
AbstractAs a neurodevelopmental condition that affects cognitive functioning, autism has been used as a test case for theories of moral responsibility. Most of the relevant literature focuses on autism ’s impact on theory of mind and empathy. Here I examine aspects of autism related to executive function. I apply an account of how we might fail to be reasons responsive to argue that autism can increase the frequency of excuses for transgressive behavior, but will rarely make anyone completely ex empt from moral responsibility in general. On this account, although excuses may apply more often to autists than to others, th...
Source: Neuroethics - August 12, 2017 Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research
Direct Brain Interventions, Changing Values and the Argument from Objectification – a Reply to Elizabeth Shaw
AbstractThis paper critically discusses the argument from objectification – as recently presented by Elizabeth Shaw – against mandatory direct brain interventions (DBIs) targeting criminal offenders’ values as part of rehabilitative or reformative schemes. Shaw contends that such DBIs would objectify offenders because a DBI “excludes offenders by portraying them a s a group to whom we need not listen” and “implies that offenders are radically defective with regard to one of the most fundamental aspects of their agency” (ShawCriminal Law and Philosophy 8:1 –20,1). To ensure that offenders are not objectified...
Source: Neuroethics - August 7, 2017 Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research
Public Attitudes Towards Moral Enhancement. Evidence that Means Matter Morally
AbstractTo gain insight into the reasons that the public may have for endorsing or eschewing pharmacological moral enhancement for themselves or for others, we used empirical tools to explore public attitudes towards these issues. Participants (N = 293) from the United States were recruited via Amazon’s Mechanical Turk and were randomly assigned to read one of several contrastive vignettes in which a 13-year-old child is described as bullying another student in school and then is offered an empathy-enhancing program. The empathy-enhanci ng program is described as either involvingtaking a pill orplaying a video game on ...
Source: Neuroethics - July 27, 2017 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 8, 2017 Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research
Towards a Moral Ecology of Pharmacological Cognitive Enhancement in British Universities
AbstractFew empirical studies in the UK have examined the complex social patterns and values behind quantitative estimates of the prevalence of pharmacological cognitive enhancement (PCE). We conducted a qualitative investigation of the social dynamics and moral attitudes that shape PCE practices among university students in two major metropolitan areas in the UK. Our thematic analysis of eight focus groups (n = 66) suggests a moral ecology that operates within the social infrastructure of the university. We find that PCE resilience among UK university students is mediated by normative and cultural judgments disfavoring ...
Source: Neuroethics - July 6, 2017 Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research
Is the Personal Identity Debate a “Threat” to Neurosurgical Patients? A Reply to Müller et al.
AbstractIn their article in this journal, Sabine M üller, Merlin Bittlinger, and Henrik Walter launch a sweeping attack against what they call the “personal identity debate” as it relates to patients treated with deep brain stimulation (DBS). In this critique offered by Müller et al., the personal identity debate is said to: (a) be metaphysica l in a problematic way, (b) constitute a threat to patients, and (c) use “vague” and “contradictory” statements from patients and their families as direct evidence for metaphysical theories. In this response, I critically evaluate Müller et al.’s argument, with a spe...
Source: Neuroethics - June 27, 2017 Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research
Personal Autonomy and Authenticity: Adolescents ’ Discretionary Use of Methylphenidate
In this study, the effect of ADHD drugs on adolescents’ personal experience is examined. The goal is to understand how psychological changes that young people experience when they take these medications interrelate with their attitude toward being medicated. Methylphenidate is the most common pharmacological treatment for ADHD. We look into the change that Israeli adolescents undergo when they use it; their experience in controlling the change, and their assessment of the meaning of the change for their lives. Thirty-eight adolescents p articipated in semi-structured interviews. The findings, analyzed using grounded theo...
Source: Neuroethics - June 20, 2017 Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research
Draining the Will to Make the Sale: The Impermissibility of Marketing by Ego-Depletion
AbstractWe argue that many modern marketing techniques are morally problematic because they take advantage of a phenomenon known as ‘ego-depletion’ according to which willpower is, similar to physical strength, a limited resource that can be depleted by predictable factors. We argue that this is impermissible for the same reason that spiking someone’s drink to impair their judgment is impermissible. (Source: Neuroethics)
Source: Neuroethics - June 13, 2017 Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research
