Empowering brain science with neuroethics

October 19, 2010

Neuroethics has established itself as a discipline dedicated to tackling tough practical questions like those of unexpected brain anomalies in research and has been moving age-old debates about mind and brain towards modern theoretical discussions about the understanding of human behaviour enabled by advances in neurosciences. In unusually interdisciplinary collaboration between neuroscientists and scholars from ethics, philosophy, law, and others who focus on the implications and applications of science, consideration of the ethical, legal, social, and policy challenges of neuroscience have been explicitly brought forward. These initiatives are allowing neuroethicists to think about topics well known to other pursuits within the domain of research and bioethics, such as consent, confidentiality, and disclosure, and others unique to the brain, such as personhood, authenticity, agency, and mental states. Through this wide lens, the societal implications both of laboratory studies and clinical neuroscience studies have come into view. (The Lancet)