Neuroethics

  • Vocabulary:

    • International Brain Research Organization (IRBO): A body that conferences to discuss ethics of neuroscience

    • Society for Neuroscience (SfN): Organization that focuses on advanced neuroscience while addressing social implications

    • Nuremberg Code: 10 point statement delimiting permissible medical experimentation on human subjects

    • Declaration of Helsinki: Statement of ethical principles for medical research involving human subjects, including research on identifiable human material data

    • Tuskegee Syphilis Study: A widely unethical study that exposed black men to syphilis and left them untreated to collect longitudinal data

    • Institutional Review Board (IRB): Reviews all studies involving humans, must approve them

    • Utilitarianism: The greatest good for the greatest number, research is done on animals for human benefit

    • Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC): On the institutional level, regulates animal research

    • Animal Welfare Act (AWA): Federally regulates animal research

    • Laboratory of Animal Welfare (OLAW): Part of NIH, responsible for giving guidance on and monitoring compliance with Public Health Services (PHS) Policy on Humane Care of Une of Laboratory Animals

    • Research Integrity: Responsible conduct of research

    • Validity: Testing what you think you’re testing

    • Ethical agent: The person doing research

    • Ethical subject: The animal having research done to it

    • Principle of equality: Is it enough for research to just benefit humans, or should it also benefit animals? Are humans and animals equal?

    • Immanuel Kant (1724-1804): German philosopher and enlightenment thinker, asked what it means to matter? People have duties for each other, and should treat people with respect. Asked what it meant for animals to matter

    • Temple Grandin: Proponent for humane treatment of livestock, thinks it is a privilege and should be respected well

  • There are philosophical roots, what are the right things and actions to take for scientific exploration? What is morally allowed to be researched?

  • There are ethical concerns in neuroscience, like how far can research go without causing too much harm

  • Historically bad things have been done, such as eugenics, psychosurgery, and other things like lobotomies

  • Lobotomies caused flat affect, sometimes for not even treating the issue it was trying to in the first place

  • The way that research frames certain findings changes how reality views things, for example “drugs are bad” leads to mass incarcerations even though things aren’t that dramatically bad, ketamine and psilocybin can be used

  • The field is growing, taking on new challenges as research and technology progress. More people know about the field not than before

  • When it comes to animal research, utilitarianism comes into play, it is more regulated in Europe and Canada. There is no government overseeing, rather institutional guidelines, putting responsibility on the researcher

  • Animal ethics, how do we treat them in a good way? They have no voice, minimize suffering.

  • Don’t use “The end justifies the means”, that indicates the means are harmful and bad

  • Animals should all be given proper housing, enrichment, nutrition, health monitoring, anaesthesia, stress minimized, good equipment, humane endpoints, proper training, and transparency in methods

  • 3 Rs:

    • Reduce: Lower the number of animals used, don’t go overboard. Use as few as possible to still get all the data you need

    • Refine: Refine tests to cause animals less stress, do as little as you need method wise to get the data. To get the good needles is more expensive, spend the money to harm the animal less during injection

    • Replace: Can a different model be used? Can it be simulated with a computer?

  • Questions asked:

    • Who owns your genetic data?

    • Are ‘designer babies’ allowed?

    • Who gets access to cures for specific diseases through gene therapy?

    • Should you be informed if you are unknowingly part of a study (informed consent)?

    • Are lie detectors allowed? (No…)

    • What is morally allowed to be researched?

    • Does benefit outweigh harm? (vaccine side effects in public vs minority getting sick)

    • Are cognitive enhancement pills allowed? (caffeine, steroids…)

    • Who gets to decide the future of neuroethics (bad podcasters)

    • Is money being made? Are there conflicts of interest?

    • What is the definition of harm? Is the injected drug harmful?

    • What protocols will be used?

    • What is the most humane way to perform a harmful action to animals?