Peter Zuk

Center for Bioethics, Harvard Medical School
  •  22
    Researcher Views on Changes in Personality, Mood, and Behavior in Next-Generation Deep Brain Stimulation
    with Clarissa E. Sanchez, Kristin Kostick-Quenet, Katrina A. Muñoz, Lavina Kalwani, Richa Lavingia, Laura Torgerson, Demetrio Sierra-Mercado, Jill O. Robinson, Stacey Pereira, Simon Outram, Barbara A. Koenig, Amy L. McGuire, and Gabriel Lázaro-Muñoz
    American Journal of Bioethics Neuroscience 14 (3): 287-299. 2023.
    The literature on deep brain stimulation (DBS) and adaptive DBS (aDBS) raises concerns that these technologies may affect personality, mood, and behavior. We conducted semi-structured interviews with researchers (n = 23) involved in developing next-generation DBS systems, exploring their perspectives on ethics and policy topics including whether DBS/aDBS can cause such changes. The majority of researchers reported being aware of personality, mood, or behavioral (PMB) changes in recipients of DBS…Read more
  •  10
    Researchers’ Ethical Concerns About Using Adaptive Deep Brain Stimulation for Enhancement
    with Kristin Kostick-Quenet, Lavina Kalwani, Barbara Koenig, Laura Torgerson, Clarissa Sanchez, Katrina Munoz, Rebecca L. Hsu, Demetrio Sierra-Mercado, Jill Oliver Robinson, Simon Outram, Stacey Pereira, Amy McGuire, and Gabriel Lazaro-Munoz
    Frontiers in Human Neuroscience 16. 2022.
    The capacity of next-generation closed-loop or adaptive deep brain stimulation devices to read and write shows great potential to effectively manage movement, seizure, and psychiatric disorders, and also raises the possibility of using aDBS to electively modulate mood, cognition, and prosociality. What separates aDBS from most neurotechnologies currently used for enhancement is that aDBS remains an invasive, surgically-implanted technology with a risk-benefit ratio significantly different when a…Read more
  •  6
    Research Comparing iPSC-Derived Neural Organoids to Ex Vivo Brain Tissue of Postmortem Donors: Identity After Life?
    with Laura Stertz, Consuelo Walss-Bass, and Gabriel Lázaro-Muñoz
    American Journal of Bioethics Neuroscience 13 (2): 111-113. 2022.
  •  18
    Operationalizing Agency in Brain Computer Interface (BCI) Research
    with Kristin Kostick and Gabriel Lázaro-Muñoz
    American Journal of Bioethics Neuroscience 12 (2-3): 203-205. 2021.
  •  26
    Disorders of Consciousness and Theories of Well-Being
    American Journal of Bioethics Neuroscience 12 (2): 165-167. 2021.
    Among other issues, Peterson and colleagues (2021) raise the crucial but vexing question of how to assess the well-being of patients with disorders of consciousness (DoCs). I provide some suggestio...
  •  9
    Treatment Search Fatigue and Informed Consent
    with Gabriel Lázaro-Muñoz
    American Journal of Bioethics Neuroscience 12 (1): 77-79. 2021.
  •  24
    Researcher Perspectives on Data Sharing in Deep Brain Stimulation
    with Clarissa E. Sanchez, Kristin Kostick, Laura Torgerson, Katrina A. Muñoz, Rebecca Hsu, Lavina Kalwani, Demetrio Sierra-Mercado, Jill O. Robinson, Simon Outram, Barbara A. Koenig, Stacey Pereira, Amy L. McGuire, and Gabriel Lázaro-Muñoz
    Frontiers in Human Neuroscience 14 578687. 2020.
    The expansion of research on deep brain stimulation (DBS) and adaptive DBS (aDBS) raises important neuroethics and policy questions related to data sharing. However, there has been little empirical research on the perspectives of experts developing these technologies. We conducted semi-structured, open-ended interviews with aDBS researchers regarding their data sharing practices and their perspectives on ethical and policy issues related to sharing. Researchers expressed support for and a commit…Read more
  •  23
    Scientific and Ethical Uncertainties in Brain Organoid Research
    with Arun Sharma and Christopher Thomas Scott
    American Journal of Bioethics 21 (1): 48-51. 2021.
    Hank Greely’s target article, “Human Brain Surrogates Research: The Onrushing Ethical Dilemma” reviews the manifold scientific and ethical questions surrounding models of human brains used i...
  •  16
    Researcher Perspectives on Ethical Considerations in Adaptive Deep Brain Stimulation Trials
    with Katrina A. Muñoz, Kristin Kostick, Clarissa Sanchez, Lavina Kalwani, Laura Torgerson, Rebecca Hsu, Demetrio Sierra-Mercado, Jill O. Robinson, Simon Outram, Barbara A. Koenig, Stacey Pereira, Amy McGuire, and Gabriel Lázaro-Muñoz
    Frontiers in Human Neuroscience 14. 2020.
  •  16
    DBS and Autonomy: Clarifying the Role of Theoretical Neuroethics
    with Gabriel Lázaro-Muñoz
    Neuroethics 14 (1): 83-93. 2019.
    In this article, we sketch how theoretical neuroethics can clarify the concept of autonomy. We hope that this can both serve as a model for the conceptual clarification of other components of PIAAAS and contribute to the development of the empirical measures that Gilbert and colleagues [1] propose.
  •  37
    DBS and Autonomy: Clarifying the Role of Theoretical Neuroethics
    with Gabriel Lázaro-Muñoz
    Neuroethics 14 (1): 83-93. 2019.
    In this article, we sketch how theoretical neuroethics can clarify the concept of autonomy. We hope that this can both serve as a model for the conceptual clarification of other components of PIAAAS and contribute to the development of the empirical measures that Gilbert and colleagues [1] propose.
  •  18
    Neuroethics at 15: Keep the Kant but Add More Bacon
    with Gabriel Lázaro-Muñoz, Stacey Pereira, Kristin Kostick, Laura Torgerson, Demetrio Sierra-Mercado, Mary Majumder, J. Blumenthal-Barby, Eric A. Storch, Wayne K. Goodman, and Amy L. McGuire
    American Journal of Bioethics Neuroscience 10 (3): 97-100. 2019.
  •  28
    Could Genetic Enhancement Really Lead to Obsolescence?
    with Gabriel Lázaro-Muñoz and Kristin M. Kostick
    American Journal of Bioethics 19 (7): 34-36. 2019.
    Volume 19, Issue 7, July 2019, Page 34-36.
  •  19
    Ethical Analysis of “Mind Reading” or “Neurotechnological Thought Apprehension”: Keeping Potential Limitations in Mind
    with Gabriel Lázaro-Muñoz
    American Journal of Bioethics Neuroscience 10 (1): 32-34. 2019.
    We appreciate Meynen’s examination of ethical implications of using neurotechnologies to decode neural data and make inferences about cognitive processes. Here, we address three issues that we beli...
  •  38
    What is a Medical Information Commons?
    with Juli M. Bollinger, Mary A. Majumder, Erika Versalovic, Angela G. Villanueva, Rebecca L. Hsu, Amy L. McGuire, and Robert Cook-Deegan
    Journal of Law, Medicine and Ethics 47 (1): 41-50. 2019.
    A 2011 National Academies of Sciences report called for an “Information Commons” and a “Knowledge Network” to revolutionize biomedical research and clinical care. We interviewed 41 expert stakeholders to examine governance, access, data collection, and privacy in the context of a medical information commons. Stakeholders' attitudes about MICs align with the NAS vision of an Information Commons; however, differences of opinion regarding clinical use and access warrant further research to explore …Read more
  •  23
    Alienation, Quality of Life, and DBS for Depression
    with Amy L. McGuire and Gabriel Lázaro-Muñoz
    American Journal of Bioethics Neuroscience 9 (4): 223-225. 2018.
  •  32
    Mill's Metaethical Non-cognitivism
    Utilitas 30 (3): 271-293. 2018.
    In section I, I lay out key components of my favoured non-cognitivist interpretation of Mill's metaethics. In section II, I respond to several objections to this style of interpretation posed by Christopher Macleod. In section III, I respond to David Brink's treatment of the well-known ‘competent judges’ passage in Mill'sUtilitarianism. I argue that important difficulties face both Brink'sevidential interpretationand the rivalconstitutive interpretationthat he proposes but rejects. I opt for a t…Read more
  •  88
    A third version of constructivism: rethinking Spinoza’s metaethics
    Philosophical Studies 172 (10): 2565-2574. 2015.
    In this essay, I claim that certain passages in Book IV of Benedict de Spinoza’s Ethics suggest a novel version of what is known as metaethical constructivism. The constructivist interpretation emerges in the course of attempting to resolve a tension between Spinoza’s apparent ethical egoism and some remarks he makes about the efficacy of collaborating with the right partners when attempting to promote our individual self-interest . Though Spinoza maintains that individuals necessarily aim to pr…Read more