Evaluating ethical frameworks for the assessment of human cognitive enhancement applications / by Ellen-Marie Forsberg, Clare Shelley-Egan, Erik Thorstensen, Laurens Landeweerd, Bjorn Hofmann
Introduction -- Ethical tools as vehicles for practical, ethical dialogue -- Ethical concerns: cognitive enhancing drugs and noninvasive brain stimulation -- Methodology -- Cognitive enhancing drugs -- Risk and efficacy -- Authenticity and naturalness -- Fairness and personal achievement -- Distributive justice -- Coercion -- Noninvasive brain stimulation -- Ethical issues specific to transcranial direct current stimulation -- Further arguments in favour of cognitive enhancement -- Frameworks relevant for assessing HCE applications -- Principle based ethics -- The ethical matrix -- The ETICA framework -- Anticipatory ethics for emerging technologies -- Ethical Technology Assessment -- Ethical Constructive Technology Assessment -- Ethical Impact Assessment -- The adequacy of the frameworks for ethical assessment of HCE applications -- Principle based ethics -- The ethical matrix -- The ETICA framework -- Anticipatory ethics for emerging technologies -- Ethical Technology Assessment -- Ethical Constructive Technology Assessment -- Ethical Impact Assessment -- Summary -- Some final reflections -- Conclusion -- Acknowledgements -- References
This book offers the policy-maker or decision-maker key insights and practical information regarding the features of ethics frameworks best suited to the ethical assessment of human cognitive enhancement (HCE) applications, such as pharmaceutical cognitive enhancers and noninvasive brain stimulation techniques. This book takes as its departure point the entrenched philosophical debate between opponents and proponents of HCE and the increased feasibility of some applications of HCE. Recent calls for policy-making in the area of human enhancement reflect the need to find a balance between addressing current ethical issues and issues that are more speculative in nature or are underpinned by abstract philosophical concepts. Practical ethical approaches for policy or decision-making should enable the development of an evidence base for the risks and benefits of HCE applications. Moreover, such practical approaches should also incorporate a broader range of value bases that would facilitate convergence regarding certain decisions and judgements. This book identifies and evaluate tools that help us to go beyond polarised philosophical debates in order to assist practical decision makers in concrete ethical deliberation and decision-making. The focus is on systematic methods with which to identify relevant ethical values and assess the impacts of an HCE application on those values in order to facilitate decision-making regarding the ethical acceptability or desirability of the application
