Imagining the Work of the Brain: Neuroethics 2005
The VII Annual Swedish Symposium on Biomedicine, Ethics and Society was held on May 13-14 2005 in Sandhamn.
Neuroethics Challenges at the Crossroads of Medical Imaging and Neuroscience
Judy Illes, Ph.D, Director, Program in Neuroethics, Senior Research Scholar, Center for Biomedical Ethics and Department of Radiology Stanford University, USA
Abstract of presentation
Advances in functional imaging of the brain have attracted significant attention in the new field of neuroethics. Akin to genetic testing in the 1990s, the translation of neuroimaging capabilities from the laboratory to the clinical setting has raised ethical questions about how new diagnostic and predictive information will be managed in the absence of effective treatments for certain diseases, about the timing of technology transfer and handling of technology that falls in the regulatory gray zone between research and clinical use, and what impact increasing opportunities for self-referral to health care will have on patient-physician relationships, medicine, and society overall. Potential off-label uses of advanced neuroimaging outside the health care setting - in law, education, employment and even for national security - are already being tested and debated. We will discuss how these issues converge in 21st century neuroethics, shifting roles of health care providers, neuroscientists and scholars in the humanities, and prospects for frontier neurotechnologies in the future.
