Neuroethics & Law Blog

PEBS Neuroethics Roundup (JHU)

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Subscribe to our mailing list The Program in Ethics and Brain Sciences (PEBS) is a collaborative effort of the Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics and the  Johns Hopkins Brain Sciences Institute . The goal of PEBS is to ensure that research in brain science proceeds with an informed understanding of ethical issues, and that philosophical and empirical analyses of the advances in brain research proceed with an informed understanding of the science.

"Attitudes of Lay People to Withdrawal of Treatment in Brain Damaged Patients"

"Attitudes of Lay People to Withdrawal of Treatment in Brain Damaged Patients" by Jacob Gipson, Guy Kahane, and Julian Savulescu has been published in the most recent issue of Neuroethics:

 

Abstract:

Background: Whether patients in the vegetative state (VS), minimally conscious state (MCS) or the clinically related locked-in syndrome (LIS) should be kept alive is a matter of intense controversy. This study aimed to examine the moral attitudes of lay people to these questions, and the values and other factors that underlie these attitudes.

Method: One hundred ninety-nine US residents completed a survey using the online platform Mechanical Turk, comprising demographic questions, agreement with treatment withdrawal from each of the conditions, agreement with a series of ethical principles and three personality tests.

Results: More supported treatment withdrawal from VS (40.2 % agreed, 17.6 % disagreed) than MCS (20.6 %, 41.2 %) or LIS (25.3 %, 35.8 %). Agreement with treatment withdrawal was negatively correlated with religiosity (r = −0.272, P  < 0.001), though showed no significant relationship with need for cognition or empathy, and only a partial association with utilitarian judgment in a standard moral dilemma. Support for treatment withdrawal was most strongly associated with endorsement of the importance of patient autonomy, dignity, suffering, best interests. Distributive justice was not given significant weight by most. Importantly, agreement with treatment withdrawal was noticeably higher when considered from a first as opposed to third person perspective for VS (Z = −6.056, P < 0.001), MCS (Z = −6.746, P < 0.001) and LIS (Z = −6.681, P < 0.001).

Conclusion: Lay attitudes to withdrawal of treatment in brain damaged patients are largely shaped by values similar to those central to the secular ethical debate. Neither traditional values such as the sanctity of life nor utilitarian values relating to resource allocation seem to play a central role. Far greater weight is given to autonomy, which may explain why participants were far more willing to endorse withdrawal of treatment when the issue was presented in the first person, or in relation to a concrete case involving a patient’s explicit wishes. Surveys focusing on abstract cases presented in the third person may not provide an accurate picture of lay attitudes to these critical ethical questions.

On Proving that Intentions Cause Actions

Neuroskeptic discusses the study here, entitled How Thoughts Give Rise to Action. 

Neil Levy Book Publication: "Consciousness and Moral Responsibility"

Neil Levy's philosophy book, "Consciousness and Moral Responsibility" has recently been released in both hardcover and ebook. Click here for more information and to purchase a copy.

"Neil Levy presents an original theory of freedom and responsibility. Cognitive neuroscience and psychology provide a great deal of evidence that our actions are often shaped by information of which we are not conscious; some psychologists have concluded that we are actually conscious of very few of the facts we respond to. But most people seem to assume that we need to be conscious of the facts we respond to in order to be responsible for what we do. Some thinkers have argued that this naïve assumption is wrong, and we need not be conscious of these facts to be responsible, while others think it is correct and therefore we are never responsible. Levy argues that both views are wrong. He sets out and defends a particular account of consciousness—the global workspace view—and argues this account entails that consciousness plays an especially important role in action. We exercise sufficient control over the moral significance of our acts to be responsible for them only when we are conscious of the facts that give to our actions their moral character. Further, our actions are expressive of who we are as moral agents only when we are conscious of these same facts. There are therefore good reasons to think that the naïve assumption, that consciousness is needed for moral responsibility, is in fact true. Levy suggests that this entails that people are responsible less often than we might have thought, but the consciousness condition does not entail that we are never morally responsible."

"Another Look at the Legal and Ethical Consequences of Pharmacological Memory Dampening: The Case of Sexual Assault"

Recently posted to SSRN (and published in the Journal of Law, Medicine, and Ethics):

"Another Look at the Legal and Ethical Consequences of Pharmacological Memory Dampening: The Case of Sexual Assault"

JENNIFER A. CHANDLER, University of Ottawa - Common Law Section
A. MOGYOROS, Independent
T. MARTIN RUBIO, Independent
E. RACINE, Institut de recherches cliniques de Montreal

Research on the use of propranolol as a pharmacological memory dampening treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder is continuing and justifies another look at the legal and ethical issues raised in the past. We summarize the general ethical and legal issues raised in the literature so far, and we select two for in-depth reconsideration. We address the concern that a traumatized witness may be less effective in a prosecution emerging from the traumatic event after memory dampening treatment. We analyze this issue in relation to sexual assault, where the suggestion that corroborating evidence may remedy any memory defects is less likely to be helpful. We also consider the clinical ethical question about a physician’s obligation to discuss potential legal consequences of memory dampening treatment. We conclude that that this latter question reflects a general problem related to novel medical treatments where the broader socio-legal consequences may be poorly understood, and suggest that issues of this sort could usefully be addressed through the promulgation of practice guidelines.

PEBS Neuroethics Roundup (JHU)

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Subscribe to our mailing list The Program in Ethics and Brain Sciences (PEBS) is a collaborative effort of the Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics and the  Johns Hopkins Brain Sciences Institute . The goal of PEBS is to ensure that research in brain science proceeds with an informed understanding of ethical issues, and that philosophical and empirical analyses of the advances in brain research proceed with an informed understanding of the science.

fMRI Pioneer, Jack Belliveau, 55

Obituary here.

Announcing Online Book Symposium: Minds, Brains, and Law

I am pleased to announce that the Neuroethics & Law Blog will host its first online book symposium from March 24-April 4. We will be discussing Michael Pardo and Dennis Patterson's Minds, Brains, and Law. Guest bloggers during the symposium include Gabriel Abend, Jane Moriarty, Amanda Pustilnik, Francis Shen, Carter Snead, and Nicole Vincent. Dennis Patterson and Michael Pardo will reply.

You can join in by commenting on posts during the symposium. Here is a link to the book at the Oxford University Press site. You can also download the first chapter for free here. I encourage you to spread news of the symposium while people still have some time to read the book.