Kopf Carrier #68 • September 2009
Communicating Ethics and Neuroscience
Jay Ingram is the co-host of Daily Planet, the hour-long prime-time science program on Discovery Channel, which he helped to design and launch 13 years ago. He has written ten books, and received numerous accolades and awards for his outstanding contributions to the popularization of science.
Mary Anne Moser has worked as a journalist, book editor, graphic designer and science communicator. She has a BSc in zoology and an interdisciplinary PhD. She is co-editor of Immersed in Technology: Art and Virtual Environments (MIT Press) and has a particular interest in the intersection of art, culture and science.
Judy Illes is Professor of Neurology, Canada Research Chair in Neuroethics, and Adjunct Professor at the School of Population and Public Health at the University of British Columbia. Dr. Illes is a co-founder of the Neuroethics Society, a member of the Internal Advisory Board for the Institute of Neurosciences, Mental Health and Addiction of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the Institute of Medicine, Forum on Neuroscience and Neurological Disorders, a member of the Dana Alliance for Brain Initiatives. She also serves as editor of the American Journal of Bioethics (AJOB)- Neuroscience. Dr. Illes can be reached at:
Introduction
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Research into the human brain is not just incredibly demanding, but is also controversial. This is not the kidney, or the heart, but the organ in which we find our “selves.” For that reason, any step toward understanding how the brain works has potential for controversy. A man in Cleveland, who has been in a persistent vegetative state for ten years, makes a remarkable recovery after “deep-brain stimulation” and now feeds himself, brushes his hair, watches movies, laughs and cries and can say the first sixteen words of the Pledge |
of Allegiance. One of the attending doctors, Nicholas Schiff, argues that this amazing recovery challenges the standard practice of “treatment discontinuation.” But how significant is this one case? If this man could partially recover, what about Terry Schiavo, the woman in Florida whose family contested the doctors’ decision to take her off life support? What would deep brain stimulation have been able to do for her? If you believe the brain imaging, not much. Schiavo did have some brain activity, but |
