Neuroethics: a guide for the perplexed.
Like filings to a magnet, issues of all shapes, sizes, and degrees of importance are sticking to the idea of neuroethics. Martha Farah, an early thinker in this new field, proposes that, numerous as they are, the problems actually fall into just three categories. She finds that neuroethics has made a quick start sizing up many practical--and some unique--questions swirling up from brain science, but, she writes, watch for challenges that reach beyond these to the metaphysical. Neuroscience may one day explain in terms of neural tissue virtually all aspects of human cognition and emotion--realms traditionally deemed apart from physical law. Thus, we should also expect neuroethics to grapple with our fundamental distinction between persons and mere "things." If mental processes prove to result from purely physical events, this opens to question our notions of consciousness, spirituality, free will, and moral responsibility.
Martha J
MJ
Farah
D001519:Behavior; D026688:Bioethical Issues; D024803:Biomedical Enhancement; D001921:Brain; D002491:Central Nervous System Agents; D003952:Diagnostic Imaging / Q000941:ethics*; D006801:Humans; D033162:Incidental Findings; D008014:Lie Detection; D019222:Mind-Body Relations, Metaphysical; D009488:Neurosciences / Q000941:ethics*; D010551:Personality; D010565:Persuasive Communication; D018907:Privacy; D029181:Spirituality
D002491:Central Nervous System Agents