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57Deep brain stimulation in the media: over-optimistic media portrayals calls for a new strategy involving journalists and scientifics in the ethical debateJournal of Integrative in Neuroscience 5 (16). 2011.Deep brain stimulation (DBS) is optimistically portrayed in contemporary media. This already happened with psychosurgery during the first half of the twentieth century. The tendency of popular media to hype the benefits of DBS therapies, without equally highlighting risks, fosters public expectations also due to the lack of ethical analysis in the scientific literature. Media are not expected (and often not prepared) to raise the ethical issues which remain unaddressed by the scientific communit…Read more
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24Is Theory Fading Away from Reality? Examining the Pathology Rather than the Technology to Understand Potential Personality ChangesAmerican Journal of Bioethics Neuroscience 14 (1): 45-47. 2023.Haeusermann et al. (Citation2023) draw three overall conclusions from their study on closed loop neuromodulation and self-perception in clinical treatment of refractory epilepsy. The first is that closed-loop neuromodulation devices did not substantially change epileptic patient’s personalities or self-perception postoperatively. The second is that some patients and caregivers attributed observed changes in personality and self-perception to the epilepsy itself and not to the DBS treatments. The…Read more
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23Neurorights: The Land of Speculative Ethics and Alarming Claims?American Journal of Bioethics Neuroscience 15 (2): 113-115. 2024.The intersection of AI and neurotechnology has resulted in an increasing number of medical and non-medical applications and has sparked debate over the need for new human rights, or “neurorights,”...
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11Aiming at Well-Being with Brain Implants: Any Risk of Implanting Unprecedented Vulnerabilities?In Elodie Boublil & Susi Ferrarello (eds.), The Vulnerability of the Human World: Well-being, Health, Technology and the Environment, Springer Verlag. pp. 181-197. 2023.Many experimental brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) are currently being medically tested in paralyzed patients. While the new generations of implantable BCIs move rapidly ahead at trying to increase the patients’ well-being, ethical concerns about their potential effects on patients’ psychological dimensions (e.g. sense of agency and control) are growing. An important ethical concern to explore is how BCIs may introduce unprecedented vulnerabilities to implanted individuals.Our chapter shows that…Read more
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10Making the Cut: What Could Be Evidence for a ‘Minimal Definition of the Neurorights’?American Journal of Bioethics Neuroscience 14 (4): 382-384. 2023.In their article, Herrera-Ferra et al. (2023) highlight how the progress and implementation of neurotechnology, especially in conjunction with artificial intelligence, have revealed potential impli...
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16Not-So-Straightforward Decisions to Keep or Explant a Device: When Does Neural Device Removal Become Patient Coercion?American Journal of Bioethics Neuroscience 13 (4): 230-232. 2022.In their article, Sankary et al. (2022) provided important preliminary findings on how research participants exiting from clinical trials engage in decisions related to the removal or post-trial us...
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10Caused by Deep Brain Stimulation? How to Measure a Je ne Sais QuoiAmerican Journal of Bioethics Neuroscience 14 (3): 305-307. 2023.The question of whether Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS), as open-loop, closed-loop or adaptative technology, induces unwanted effects on patients’ personality is still an ongoing multidisciplinary deb...
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24Why Won’t You Listen To Me? Predictive Neurotechnology and Epistemic AuthorityNeuroethics 16 (3): 1-12. 2023.From epileptic seizures to depressive symptoms, predictive neurotechnologies are used for a large range of applications. In this article we focus on advisory devices; namely, predictive neurotechnology programmed to detect specific neural events (e.g., epileptic seizure) and advise users to take necessary steps to reduce or avoid the impact of the forecasted neuroevent. Receiving advise from a predictive device is not without ethical concerns. The problem with predictive neural devices, in parti…Read more
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7Fairness in Military Care: Might a Hybrid Concept of Equity Be the Answer?In Sheena M. Eagan & Daniel Messelken (eds.), Resource Scarcity in Austere Environments: An Ethical Examination of Triage and Medical Rules of Eligibility, Springer Verlag. pp. 155-171. 2023.Applying equity to health care is difficult and it is especially challenging when applied to cases that involve urgent military medicine care under resource scarcity. Part of the difficulty centers on the concept of equity itself. It is not clear what the best concept of equity applicable to medical care would be, or that there should be only one, or the same ones, across all levels of military health care. Despite the fact that equity is a key concern in health care, particularly in the age of …Read more
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2932 Shades of Neuroethics—A Review of the Routledge Handbook of Neuroethics, edited by L. Syd M Johnson and Karen S. Rommelfanger1American Journal of Bioethics 18 (10): 1-3. 2018.
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16Of Meatballs And Invasive Neurotechnological Trials: Additional Considerations for Complex Clinical DecisionsAmerican Journal of Bioethics Neuroscience 9 (2): 100-104. 2018.Using this case, Lavazza and Reichlin (2018) explored the ethical dilemmas associated with decision making in people with Alzheimer’s disease (AD), specifically when their new preferences conflict...
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15Decoded Neurofeedback: Eligibility, Applicability, and Reliability Issues for Use in Schizophrenia and Major Depressive DisorderAmerican Journal of Bioethics Neuroscience 7 (2): 127-129. 2016.
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26Beyond Genomic Association: Ethical Implications of Elucidating Disease Mechanisms and Genotype-Influenced Treatment ResponseAmerican Journal of Bioethics 17 (4): 24-26. 2017.
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16Big Explanations for Big Expectations: Deriving Lessons From the Human Genome and Blue Brain ProjectsAmerican Journal of Bioethics Neuroscience 7 (1): 18-20. 2016.
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15Ethical examination of deep brain stimulation’s ‘last resort’ statusJournal of Medical Ethics 47 (12). 2021.Deep brain stimulation interventions are novel devices being investigated for the management of severe treatment-resistant psychiatric illnesses. These interventions require the invasive implantation of high-frequency neurostimulatory probes intracranially aiming to provide symptom relief in treatment-resistant disorders including obsessive-compulsive disorder and anorexia nervosa. In the scientific literature, these neurostimulatory interventions are commonly described as reversible and to be u…Read more
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10Military Medicine Research: Incorporation of High Risk of Irreversible Harms into a Stratified Risk Framework for Clinical TrialsIn Daniel Messelken & David Winkler (eds.), Health Care in Contexts of Risk, Uncertainty, and Hybridity, Springer. pp. 253-273. 2021.Clinical trials aim to minimise participant risk and generate new clinical knowledge for the wider population. Many military agencies are now investing efforts in pushing towards developing new treatments involving Brain-Computer Interfaces, Gene Therapy and Stem Cells interventions. These trials are targeting smaller disease groups, as such they give rise to novel participant risks of harms that are largely not accommodated by existing practice. This is of most concern with irreversible harms a…Read more
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86The Inheritance, Power and Predicaments of the “Brain-Reading” MetaphorMedicine Studies 2 (4): 229-244. 2011.Purpose With the increasing sophistication of neuroimaging technologies in medicine, new language is being sought to make sense of the findings. The aim of this paper is to explore whether the brain-reading metaphor used to convey current medical or neurobiological findings imports unintended significations that do not necessarily reflect the genuine findings made by physicians and neuroscientists. Methods First, the paper surveys the ambiguities of the readability metaphor, drawing from the his…Read more
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25The Effects of Closed-Loop Brain Implants on Autonomy and Deliberation: What are the Risks of Being Kept in the Loop?Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics 27 (2): 316-325. 2018.
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108The burden of normality: from 'chronically ill' to 'symptom free'. New ethical challenges for deep brain stimulation postoperative treatmentJournal of Medical Ethics 38 (7): 408-412. 2012.Although an invasive medical intervention, Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) has been regarded as an efficient and safe treatment of Parkinson’s disease for the last 20 years. In terms of clinical ethics, it is worth asking whether the use of DBS may have unanticipated negative effects similar to those associated with other types of psychosurgery. Clinical studies of epileptic patients who have undergone an anterior temporal lobectomy have identified a range of side effects and complications in a num…Read more
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25Thinking Ahead Too Much: Speculative Ethics and Implantable Brain DevicesAmerican Journal of Bioethics Neuroscience 5 (1): 49-51. 2014.
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73Print Me an Organ? Ethical and Regulatory Issues Emerging from 3D Bioprinting in MedicineScience and Engineering Ethics 24 (1): 73-91. 2018.Recent developments of three-dimensional printing of biomaterials in medicine have been portrayed as demonstrating the potential to transform some medical treatments, including providing new responses to organ damage or organ failure. However, beyond the hype and before 3D bioprinted organs are ready to be transplanted into humans, several important ethical concerns and regulatory questions need to be addressed. This article starts by raising general ethical concerns associated with the use of b…Read more
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27Paedophilia, Invasive Brain Surgery, and PunishmentJournal of Bioethical Inquiry 12 (3): 521-526. 2015.
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110Involuntary & Voluntary Invasive Brain Surgery: Ethical Issues Related to Acquired Aggressiveness (review)Neuroethics 6 (1): 115-128. 2012.Clinical cases of frontal lobe lesions have been significantly associated with acquired aggressive behaviour. Restoring neuronal and cognitive faculties of aggressive individuals through invasive brain intervention raises ethical questions in general. However, more questions have to be addressed in cases where individuals refuse surgical treatment. The ethical desirability and permissibility of using intrusive surgical brain interventions for involuntary or voluntary treatment of acquired aggres…Read more
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22Just Another Spot? How to Miss the Ethical TargetAmerican Journal of Bioethics Neuroscience 5 (4): 85-87. 2014.
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65I Miss Being Me: Phenomenological Effects of Deep Brain StimulationAmerican Journal of Bioethics Neuroscience 8 (2): 96-109. 2017.The phenomenological effects of deep brain stimulation (DBS) on the self of the patient remains poorly understood and under described in the literature, despite growing evidence that a significant number of patients experience postoperative neuropsychiatric changes. To address this lack of phenomenological evidence, we conducted in-depth, semistructured interviews with 17 patients with Parkinson's disease who had undergone DBS. Exploring the subjective character specific to patients' experience …Read more
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28Is a ‘Last Chance’ Treatment Possible After an Irreversible Brain Intervention?American Journal of Bioethics Neuroscience 6 (2). 2015.
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41Enthusiastic portrayal of 3D bioprinting in the media: Ethical side effectsBioethics 32 (2): 94-102. 2017.There has been a surge in mass media reports extolling the potential for using three-dimensional printing of biomaterials to treat a wide range of clinical conditions. Given that mass media is recognized as one of the most important sources of health and medical information for the general public, especially prospective patients, we report and discuss the ethical consequences of coverage of 3D bioprinting in the media. First, we illustrate how positive mass media narratives of a similar biofabri…Read more
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155The goal of this article is to shed light on Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) postoperative suicidality risk factors within Treatment Resistant Depression (TRD) patients, in particular by focusing on the ethical concern of enrolling patient with history of self-estrangement, suicide attempts and impulsive–aggressive inclinations. In order to illustrate these ethical issues we report and review a clinical case associated with postoperative feelings of self-estrangement, self-harm behaviours and suici…Read more
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30Controlling Brain Cells With Light: Ethical Considerations for Optogenetic Clinical TrialsAmerican Journal of Bioethics Neuroscience 5 (3): 3-11. 2014.Optogenetics is being optimistically presented in contemporary media for its unprecedented capacity to control cell behavior through the application of light to genetically modified target cells. As such, optogenetics holds obvious potential for application in a new generation of invasive medical devices by which to potentially provide treatment for neurological and psychiatric conditions such as Parkinson's disease, addiction, schizophrenia, autism and depression. Design of a first-in-human opt…Read more
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62A Threat to Autonomy? The Intrusion of Predictive Brain ImplantsAmerican Journal of Bioethics Neuroscience 6 (4): 4-11. 2015.