•  142
    Deep Brain Stimulation and the Search for Identity
    with Jens Kuhn, Lars Timmermann, Mateusz Zurowski, and Christiane Woopen
    Neuroethics 6 (3): 499-511. 2011.
    Ethical evaluation of deep brain stimulation as a treatment for Parkinson’s disease is complicated by results that can be described as involving changes in the patient’s identity. The risk of becoming another person following surgery is alarming for patients, caregivers and clinicians alike. It is one of the most urgent conceptual and ethical problems facing deep brain stimulation in Parkinson’s disease at this time. In our paper we take issue with this problem on two accounts. First, we elucida…Read more
  •  7
    Caregiver burden and the medical ethos
    with Johanne Stümpel and Christiane Woopen
    Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy 20 (3): 383-391. 2017.
    Are physicians sometimes morally required to ease caregiver burden? In our paper we defend an affirmative answer to this question. First, we examine the well-established principle that medical care should be centered on the patient. We argue that although this principle seems to give physicians some leeway to lessen caregivers' suffering, it is very restrictive when spelled out precisely. Based on a critical analysis of existing cases for transcending patient-centeredness we then go on to argue …Read more
  •  153
    Narrative and persistence
    Canadian Journal of Philosophy 49 (3): 419-434. 2019.
    ABSTRACTMany philosophers say that the nature of personal identity has to do with narratives: the stories we tell about ourselves. While different narrativists address different questions of personal identity, some propose narrativist accounts of personal identity over time. The paper argues that such accounts have troubling consequences about the beginning and end of our lives, lead to inconsistencies, and involve backwards causation. The problems can be solved, but only by modifying the accoun…Read more
  •  5
    Neural Correlates of Executed Compared to Imagined Writing and Drawing Movements: A Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Study
    with Alexander Baumann, Inken Tödt, Arne Knutzen, Carl Alexander Gless, Oliver Granert, Stephan Wolff, Christian Marquardt, Jos S. Becktepe, Sönke Peters, and Kirsten E. Zeuner
    Frontiers in Human Neuroscience 16. 2022.
    ObjectiveIn this study we used functional magnetic resonance imaging to investigate whether motor imagery of handwriting and circle drawing activates a similar handwriting network as writing and drawing itself.MethodsEighteen healthy right-handed participants wrote the German word “Wellen” and drew continuously circles in a sitting and lying position to capture kinematic handwriting parameters such as velocity, pressure and regularity of hand movements. Afterward, they performed the same tasks d…Read more
  •  593
    Against Person Essentialism
    with Eric T. Olson*
    Mind 129 (515): 715-735. 2020.
    It is widely held that every person is a person essentially, where being a person is having special mental properties such as intelligence and self-consciousness. It follows that nothing can acquire or lose these properties. The paper argues that this rules out all familiar psychological-continuity views of personal identity over time. It also faces grave difficulties in accounting for the mental powers of human beings who are not intelligent and self-conscious, such as foetuses and those with d…Read more
  •  17
    In Defence of Advance Directives in Dementia
    Pacific Philosophical Quarterly 101 (1): 2-21. 2019.
    It has often been claimed that orthodox thinking about personal identity undermines the moral authority of advance directives in dementia by implying that the signer of the directive is numerically different from the severely demented patient. This is the ‘identity problem'. I introduce the problem, outline some well‐known solutions, and explain why they might be deemed unattractive. I then propose an alternative solution. It promises to be compatible with orthodox thinking about personal identi…Read more
  •  31
    Deep brain stimulation, personal identity, and informed consent
    Ethik in der Medizin 25 (1): 5-18. 2013.
    Ein Leitmotiv der medizinethischen Auseinandersetzung mit der tiefen Hirnstimulation (THS) ist die Beschäftigung mit Fragen personaler Identität. Da es sich bei personaler Identität auch um ein Problem der theoretischen Philosophie handelt, wird in diesem Aufsatz nicht nur die praktische Frage nach der ethischen Legitimation der THS durch informierte Einwilligung gestellt und ein modifiziertes Legitimationskriterium für wesensändernde THS erarbeitet. Vielmehr wird zunächst versucht, das Problem,…Read more
  •  52
    Demenz und personale Identität
    Zeitschrift für Praktische Philosophie 5 (1): 153-180. 2018.
    Viele Menschen halten Patientenverfügungen für ein geeignetes Mittel, um selbstbestimmt zu entscheiden, wie mit ihnen im Fall schwerer Demenz umgegangen werden soll. Die meisten Bioethiker stimmen ihnen zu: Demenzverfügungen seien Ausdruck der „verlängerten Autonomie“ der Patientin. Doch ob sie recht haben, ist unklar. Dem viel beachteten Identitätseinwand zufolge sind die Ausstellerin der Verfügung und ihre schwer demente Nachfolgerin numerisch verschieden: Sie sind zwei und nicht eins. Wenn da…Read more
  •  69
    Narrative and Characterization
    Erkenntnis 85 (1): 45-63. 2020.
    Many philosophers working on personal identity and ethics say that personal identity is constituted by stories: narratives people tell or would tell about their lives. Most of them also say that this is personal identity in the ‘characterization sense’, that it is the notion people in ordinary contexts are interested in, and that it raises the ‘characterization question’. I argue that these claims are inconsistent. Narrativists can avoid the incompatibility in one of two ways: They can concede t…Read more
  •  26
    Identity change and informed consent
    Journal of Medical Ethics 43 (6): 384-390. 2017.
  •  3
    Deep brain stimulation, personal identity, and informed consent
    Ethik in der Medizin 25 (1): 5-18. 2013.
    Ein Leitmotiv der medizinethischen Auseinandersetzung mit der tiefen Hirnstimulation (THS) ist die Beschäftigung mit Fragen personaler Identität. Da es sich bei personaler Identität auch um ein Problem der theoretischen Philosophie handelt, wird in diesem Aufsatz nicht nur die praktische Frage nach der ethischen Legitimation der THS durch informierte Einwilligung gestellt und ein modifiziertes Legitimationskriterium für wesensändernde THS erarbeitet. Vielmehr wird zunächst versucht, das Problem,…Read more