The Illusion of Agency in Human –Computer Interaction
This article makes the case that our digital devices create illusions of agency. There are times when users feel as if they are in control when in fact they are merely responding to stimuli on the screen in predictable ways. After the introduction, the second section of the article offers examples of illusions of agency that do not involve human –computer interaction in order to show that such illusions are possible and not terribly uncommon. The third and fourth sections of the article cover relevant work from empirical psychology, including the cues that are known to generate the sense of agency. The fifth section of t...
Source: Neuroethics - April 5, 2022 Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research
Moral Neuroenhancement for Prisoners of War
AbstractMoral agential neuroenhancement (MANE) can transform us into better people. However, critics of MB raise four central objections to MANEs use: (1) It destroys moral freedom; (2) it kills one moral agent and replaces them with another, better agent; (3) it carries significant risk of infection and illness; (4) it benefits society but not the enhanced person; and (5) it ’s wrong to experiment on nonconsenting persons. Herein, I defend MANE’s use for prisoners of war (POWs) fighting unjustly. First, the permissibility of killing unjust combatants entails that, in cases where MANE is equally or more likely as termi...
Source: Neuroethics - March 18, 2022 Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research
The Case of Hannah Capes: How Much Does Consciousness Matter?
AbstractA recent legal case involving an ambiguous diagnosis in a woman with a severe disorder of consciousness raises pressing questions about treatment withdrawal in a time when much of what experts know about disorders of consciousness is undergoing revision and refinement. How much should diagnostic certainty about consciousness matter? For the judge who refused to allow withdrawal of artificial nutrition and hydration, it was dispositive. Rather than relying on substituted judgment or best interests to determine treatment decisions, he ruled that withdrawal was categorically prohibited, even as he concluded that Hanna...
Source: Neuroethics - March 15, 2022 Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research
Do Different Kinds of Minds Need Different Kinds of Services? Qualitative Results from a Mixed-Method Survey of Service Preferences of Autistic Adults and Parents
AbstractMany services can assist autistic people, such as early intervention, vocational services, or support groups. Scholars and activists debate whether such services should be autism-specific or more general/inclusive/mainstream. This debate rests on not only clinical reasoning, but also ethical and social reasoning about values and practicalities of diversity and inclusion. This paper presents qualitative results from a mixed-methods study. An online survey asked autistic adults and parents of autistic people of any age in Canada, the United States, Italy, France, and Germany what types of services they prefer (autism...
Source: Neuroethics - March 11, 2022 Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research
Neuroenhancements in the Military: A Mixed-Method Pilot Study on Attitudes of Staff Officers to Ethics and Rules
AbstractUtilising science and technology to maximize human performance is often an essential feature of military activity. This can often be focused on mission success rather than just the welfare of the individuals involved. This tension has the potential to threaten the autonomy of soldiers and military physicians around the taking or administering of enhancement neurotechnologies (e.g., pills, neural implants, and neuroprostheses). TheHybrid Framework was proposed by academic researchers working in the U.S. context and comprises “rules” for military neuroenhancement (e.g., ensuring transparency and maintaining digni...
Source: Neuroethics - February 28, 2022 Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research
Correction to: Human Brain Organoids and Consciousness
(Source: Neuroethics)
Source: Neuroethics - February 28, 2022 Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research
Memory Modification and Authenticity: A Narrative Approach
AbstractThe potential of memory modification techniques (MMTs) has raised concerns and sparked a debate in neuroethics, particularly in the context of identity and authenticity. This paper addresses the question whether and how MMTs influence authenticity. I proceed by drawing two distinctions within the received views on authenticity. From this, I conclude that an analysis of MMTs based on a dual-basis, process view of authenticity is warranted, which implies that the influence of MMTs on authenticity crucially depends on the specifics of how memory modification would eventually work. Therefore, I continue with a systemat...
Source: Neuroethics - February 16, 2022 Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research
Unlocking the Voices of Patients with Severe Brain Injury
AbstractThis paper critically examines whether patients with severe brain injury, who can only communicate through assistive neuroimaging technologies, may permissibly participate in medical decisions. We examine this issue in the context of a unique case study from the Brain and Mind Institute at the University of Western Ontario. First, we describe how the standard approach to medical decision making might problematically exclude patients with communication impairments secondary to severe brain injury. Second, we present a modified approach to medical decision making. We argue that this approach might warrant the inclusi...
Source: Neuroethics - February 11, 2022 Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research
Preserving Narrative Identity for Dementia Patients: Embodiment, Active Environments, and Distributed Memory
AbstractOne goal of this paper is to argue that autobiographical memories are extended and distributed across embodied brains and environmental resources. This is important because such distributed memories play a constitutive role in our narrative identity. So, some of the building blocks of our narrative identity are not brain-bound but extended and distributed. Recognising the distributed nature of memory and narrative identity, invites us to find treatments and strategies focusing on the environment in which dementia patients are situated. A second goal of this paper is to suggest various of such strategies, including ...
Source: Neuroethics - February 9, 2022 Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research
Novel Neurorights: From Nonsense to Substance
AbstractThis paper analyses recent calls for so called “neurorights”, suggested novel human rights whose adoption is allegedly required because of advances in neuroscience, exemplified by a proposal of the Neurorights Initiative. Advances in neuroscience and technology are indeed impressive and pose a range of challenges for the law, and some novel applications give grounds for human rights concerns. But whether addressing these concerns requires adopting novel human rights, and whether the proposed neurorights are suitable candidates, are a different matter. This paper argues that the proposed rights, as individuals a...
Source: Neuroethics - February 8, 2022 Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research
Concerns About Psychiatric Neurosurgery and How They Can Be Overcome: Recommendations for Responsible Research
ConclusionsPsychiatric neurosurgery procedures with preliminary evidence for efficacy and an acceptable risk –benefit profile include DBS and micro- or radiosurgical anterior capsulotomy for intractable obsessive–compulsive disorder. These methods may be considered for individual treatment attempts, but multi-centre RCTs are necessary to provide reliable evidence. (Source: Neuroethics)
Source: Neuroethics - February 7, 2022 Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research
Human Brain Organoids and Consciousness
This article proposes a methodological schema for engaging in a productive discussion of ethical issues regarding human brain organoids (HBOs), which are three-dimensional cortical neural tissues created using human pluripotent stem cells. Although moral consideration of HBOs significantly involves the possibility that they have consciousness, there is no widely accepted procedure to determine whether HBOs are conscious. Given that this is the case, it has been argued that we should adopt a precautionary principle about consciousness according to which, if we are not certain whether HBOs have consciousness —and where tre...
Source: Neuroethics - February 4, 2022 Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research
Neither the “Devil’s Lettuce” nor a “Miracle Cure:” The Use of Medical Cannabis in the Care of Children and Youth
AbstractLack of guidance and regulation for authorizing medical cannabis for conditions involving the health and neurodevelopment of children is ethically problematic as it promulgates access inequities, risk-benefit inconsistencies, and inadequate consent mechanisms. In two virtual sessions using participatory action research and consensus-building methods, we obtained perspectives of stakeholders on ethics and medical cannabis for children and youth. The sessions focused on the scientific and regulatory landscape of medical cannabis, surrogate decision-making and assent, and the social and political culture of medical ca...
Source: Neuroethics - February 3, 2022 Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research
On the Contribution of Neuroethics to the Ethics and Regulation of Artificial Intelligence
AbstractContemporary ethical analysis of Artificial Intelligence (AI) is growing rapidly. One of its most recognizable outcomes is the publication of a number of ethics guidelines that, intended to guide governmental policy, address issues raised by AI design, development, and implementation and generally present a set of recommendations. Here we propose two things: first, regarding content, since some of the applied issues raised by AI are related to fundamental questions about topics like intelligence, consciousness, and the ontological and ethical status of humans, among others, the treatment of these issues would benef...
Source: Neuroethics - February 3, 2022 Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research
Exculpation and Stigma in Tourette Syndrome
ConclusionThere seems to be potential for blame reduction in explanations where biological and psychosocial factors are entangled. However, dynamic, ‘epigenetic’, explanations require further qualitative research to be performed as well as a philosophical framework to account for the ‘mixed blessings’ account. (Source: Neuroethics)
Source: Neuroethics - February 3, 2022 Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research
