The Europäische Akademie publishes a new study on the societal challenges of innovative interventions in the brain

Berlin, 2 May 2007. – Paralysed patients can control artificial limbs with the help of brain-computer interfaces and their own thoughts. Parkinson patients receive injections into their brains from aborted foetuses in order to alleviate their condition. People suffering from depression can control their moods through electrodes deeply implanted into their brains. High school graduates improve their performance in exams by taking pills they buy off their hyperactive classmates. – In recent years, there has been a great deal of news such as this about the possible use and abuse of innovations in neuroscience. And it is difficult, not only for laypeople, to distinguish between current applications and more or less realistic future perspectives. Accordingly, the debates about new opportunities for intervening in the brain diverge widely between euphoric anticipations of innovative therapies and gloomy fears of self-alienating individuals or a competitive society based on brain doping.

The latest Europäische Akademie’s study offers rational orientation guidelines for this situation. It has evolved from the two and a half years of work by an interdisciplinary project group consisting of neuroscientists, medical doctors, philosophers, and a legal expert. In the first part of the book, experts report first hand about current possibilities and development prospects in the areas of psychopharmacology, neurotransplantation, neuroprothetics, and electronic stimulation technology. The second part analyses the most pertinent objections against these kinds of interventions from a philosophical and legal perspective, attempting to distinguish carefully between reasonable worries and anti-technological panicmongering.

The authors draw practical conclusions in order to prepare for a responsible way of dealing with innovative interventions in the brain. The therapeutic applications of such interventions must surely be evaluated differently from those aiming at “enhancement”, i.e. improving mental performance of healthy people. Thus, side-effects carry much more weight regarding means of enhancement. Still, according to the authors, it is not generally objectionable if people attempt to enhance their metal performance using appropriate techniques and at their own risk. However, they must do it at their own cost also, since such measures should principally not be promoted by the public health care system.

Publication: 

Reinhard Merkel, Gerhard Boer, Jörg Fegert, Thorsten Galert, Dirk Hartmann, Bart Nuttin, Steffen Rosahl: Intervening in the Brain. Changing Psyche and Society (vol. 29 of the series “Ethics of Science and Technology Assessment”. Ed. C. F. Gethmann), Springer Verlag, Berlin 2007, ISBN-10 3-540-46476-X.