Judy Illes,
Stanford University, USA
In the first ever Neuroethics address to the Society for Neuroscience that met in San Diego, California in 2003, Professor Don Kennedy said: "Far more than our genomes, our brains are us, marking out the special character of our personal capacities, emotions and convictions. As for my 'brainome', I don't want anyone to know it for any purpose whatsoever."
Most would agree with Kennedy's thinking about the uniqueness of our being. Not everyone would agree, however, with his cautions about pursuing the "brainome", even in a technological and political climate in which confidentiality cannot be assured. There may be risks, but significant progress in neuroscience today supports an unrelenting human curiosity about the neurobiology of who we are and an ever increasing hunger for innovation toward self-improvement, quality of life, and longevity.
In this presentation, I will discuss the momentum in international neuroethics as it draws on lessons learned from genetics. I will argue that functional neuroimaging, as one model, plays a special role in this progress and that it has moved us, in many different ways, from imaginations to images about the human self. I will discuss how this has had an impact on privacy and personal identity in research and medicine, and the groundwork it lays for the next generation of neuroethics discussions about emerging interventions for the central nervous system, including cellular, molecular and nanotechnologies. |
