Novel Neurorights: From Nonsense to Substance
- PMID: 35154507
- PMCID: PMC8821782
- DOI: 10.1007/s12152-022-09481-3
Novel Neurorights: From Nonsense to Substance
Abstract
This paper analyses recent calls for so called "neurorights", suggested novel human rights whose adoption is allegedly required because of advances in neuroscience, exemplified by a proposal of the Neurorights Initiative. Advances in neuroscience and technology are indeed impressive and pose a range of challenges for the law, and some novel applications give grounds for human rights concerns. But whether addressing these concerns requires adopting novel human rights, and whether the proposed neurorights are suitable candidates, are a different matter. This paper argues that the proposed rights, as individuals and a class, should not be adopted and lobbying on their behalf should stop. The proposal tends to promote rights inflationism, is tainted by neuroexceptionalism and neuroessentialism, and lacks grounding in relevant scholarship. None of the proposed individual rights passes quality criteria debated in the field. While understandable from a moral perspective, the proposal is fundamentally flawed from a legal perspective. Rather than conjuring up novel human rights, existing rights should be further developed in face of changing societal circumstances and technological possibilities.
Keywords: Human rights; Neuroessentialism; Neurorights; Neuroscience; Regulation.
© The Author(s) 2022.
Conflict of interest statement
Conflicts of Interests/Competing InterestsThe author declares no competing interests.
Similar articles
-
Chilean Supreme Court ruling on the protection of brain activity: neurorights, personal data protection, and neurodata.Front Psychol. 2024 Feb 27;15:1330439. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1330439. eCollection 2024. Front Psychol. 2024. PMID: 38476399 Free PMC article. Review.
-
On pharmacological neuroenhancement as part of the new neurorights' pioneering legislation in Chile: a perspective.Front Psychol. 2023 Jul 18;14:1177720. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1177720. eCollection 2023. Front Psychol. 2023. PMID: 37533709 Free PMC article. Review.
-
On Neurorights.Front Hum Neurosci. 2021 Sep 24;15:701258. doi: 10.3389/fnhum.2021.701258. eCollection 2021. Front Hum Neurosci. 2021. PMID: 34630057 Free PMC article. Review.
-
Contextual and Cultural Perspectives on Neurorights: Reflections Toward an International Consensus.AJOB Neurosci. 2023 Oct-Dec;14(4):360-368. doi: 10.1080/21507740.2022.2048722. Epub 2022 Mar 27. AJOB Neurosci. 2023. PMID: 35341473
-
Minding Rights: Mapping Ethical and Legal Foundations of 'Neurorights'.Camb Q Healthc Ethics. 2023 May 15:1-21. doi: 10.1017/S0963180123000245. Online ahead of print. Camb Q Healthc Ethics. 2023. PMID: 37183686
Cited by
-
Chilean Supreme Court ruling on the protection of brain activity: neurorights, personal data protection, and neurodata.Front Psychol. 2024 Feb 27;15:1330439. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1330439. eCollection 2024. Front Psychol. 2024. PMID: 38476399 Free PMC article. Review.
-
Virtual emotions and Criminal Law.Front Psychol. 2023 Oct 31;14:1260425. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1260425. eCollection 2023. Front Psychol. 2023. PMID: 38022971 Free PMC article.
-
A comparative review on neuroethical issues in neuroscientific and neuroethical journals.Front Neurosci. 2023 Sep 14;17:1160611. doi: 10.3389/fnins.2023.1160611. eCollection 2023. Front Neurosci. 2023. PMID: 37781239 Free PMC article. Review.
-
Advocating for neurodata privacy and neurotechnology regulation.Nat Protoc. 2023 Oct;18(10):2869-2875. doi: 10.1038/s41596-023-00873-0. Epub 2023 Sep 11. Nat Protoc. 2023. PMID: 37697107 Review.
-
On pharmacological neuroenhancement as part of the new neurorights' pioneering legislation in Chile: a perspective.Front Psychol. 2023 Jul 18;14:1177720. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1177720. eCollection 2023. Front Psychol. 2023. PMID: 37533709 Free PMC article. Review.
References
-
- Bentham, Jeremy. 1796. Anarchical Fallacies. Reprinted in: Waldron (ed.), ‘Nonsense upon stilts’. Bentham, Burke and Marx on the Rights of Man (1987). Methuen.
-
- Yuste, Rafael. 2019. Adress to the 140th Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union. Doha, April 2019. https://www.ipu.org/sites/default/files/documents/yuste_speech_final_0.pdf.
-
- Tasioulas, John. 2011. The inflation of concepts. AEON. https://aeon.co/essays/conceptual-overreach-threatens-the-quality-of-pub....
LinkOut - more resources
Full Text Sources