Ethics of Emerging Technologies: Neuroscience

Located at the University of Pennsylvania, the Center for Neuroscience and Society's website includes links to article written by their faculty, resources for teaching and informative overviews of some main areas of interest in neuroscience ethics, including brain scans, cognitive enhancement, and brain-machine interfaces.

The Center for Cognitive Liberty & Ethics (CCLE) is a network of scholars elaborating the law, policy and ethics of freedom of thought.

he Research Network on Law and Neuroscience, supported by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, addresses a focused set of closely-related problems at the intersection of neuroscience and criminal justice: 1) determining the law-relevant mental states of defendants and witnesses; 2) assessing a defendant’s capacity for self-regulating his behavior; and 3) assessing whether, and if so how, neuroscientific evidence should be admitted and evaluated in individual cases.

We are an interdisciplinary group of scholars, scientists, clinicians and other professionals who share an interest in the social, legal, ethical and policy implications of advances in neuroscience. The late 20th century saw unprecedented progress in the basic sciences of mind and brain and in the treatment of psychiatric and neurologic disorders. Now, in the early 21st century, neuroscience plays an expanding role in human life beyond the research lab and clinic. In classrooms, courtrooms, offices and homes around the world, neuroscience is giving us powerful new tools for achieving our goals and prompting a new understanding of ourselves as social, moral and spiritual beings.

Representative Goodhart, a conscious legislator committed to proactively addressing concerns, called together an ad hoc committee to examine the foreseeable application of brain scans, and to recommend legislation to prevent abuses of the technology. At the meeting, members of the committee talked about the use of brain scans to potentially help for early diagnosis and treatment of autisim, schizophrenia and neurodegenerative disorders, its use in advancing the field of psychology, its use in criminal justice, and including brain scans as part of hiring processes and university admissions. To all this Representative Goodhart listened attentively, aware that there was a great deal to consider before proposing legislation to prevent abuse of brain scan technologies.

An interesting introductory article to some ethical issues in neuroscience such as how to use the information gleaned from brain scans, issues related to brain enhancement, and its use in law enforcement.