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Addressing the Ethical, Legal, Social, and Cultural Implications of Neurotechnology

As part of our effort to support the neuroengineering community, the IEEE Brain Neuroethics Subcommittee is developing a neuroethical framework for evaluating the ethical, legal, social, and cultural issues that may arise with the deployment of such neurotechnologies.

IEEE Neuroethics FrameworkThe goals of this framework are to:

  1. Describe the landscape of what we define as neurotechnologies
  2. Identify the ethical, legal, social, and cultural implications (ELSCI) that should be broadly considered during the research, development, clinical application, evaluation, adoption, and usage of neurotechnologies. While this framework is intended to provide particularly useful guidance for neurotechnology researchers and developers, the broad reach of ELSCI demands that all neurotech stakeholders—including device regulators, research ethics committees, scientific funding officers, clinicians, and end users—remain aware of these issues and engaged in related professional and public discourse.

IEEE Brain is in the process of developing documentation that supports this framework by providing examples of existing neurotechnologies and exploring the ethical, legal, social, and cultural issues generated by a particular neurotechnology when used in specific contexts. Below is a general introduction of the overall efforts and information on each of the working groups.

If you are interested in volunteering in one of these Working Groups to help advance the work, please complete this FORM and we will contact you.

Read General Framework Preamble

Medical

Technologies for diagnostics or treatment of infirmity and disease including direct-to-consumer

Jacob Robinson
Rebecca Monteleone

Alberto Antonietti
Michael Young
Denis Lavaree
Jennifer French
Joanne Nash
Zach McKinney
Joana Soldado
Noeline Prins
Tom Stieglitz

Wellness

Technologies for active pursuit of a healthy and fulfilling life; improving physical, mental, and social well-being

Peter B. Reiner
Katherine Bassil

Jeremy Greenberg
Adriana Pliego
Tamami Fukushi

Legal

Technologies for use in civil and criminal adjudication, as well as in the correctional context, including to detect, modify and/or surveil brain states

Jack Judy
Nicole Martinez

Ashley Williams
Anita Jwa
Matias Aranguiz
Jordi Domingo
Gary Marchant
Jennifer Chandler
Ricardo Abuchaim
Masatoshi Kokomo

Military / National Security

Technologies to augment or improve the ability to fight or defend through soldier enhancement, intelligence, and/or debilitate the enemy

Seth Elkin Frankston
Diane DiEuliis

Tracy Laabs
Kimberly Thacker
Matias Aranguiz
Paul Beach
Carl Wrede
Gabriella Smith
Rachel Wurzman
Joshua Mueller
Inga Ulnicane
Courtnie Jean Paschall

Work & Employment

Technologies to monitor or modify brain in the workplace; efficiency improvements, evaluation and monitoring

Avinash Kumar Singh
Yunus Telliel

Adrian Carter
Lex Telischak
Rachel Wurzman
Max Wilson
Nikhil Gowda
Kelly Neville
Jack Judy

Education

Technologies to improve and/or facilitate learning; assist in remedial learning strategies; cognitive enhancement

John Shook
Genevieve Smith Nunes

Bruce Hecht
Josep Maria Balaguer
Deepak Mewada
Manuel Guerrero
Ankita Moss
Uri Hasson

Sports & Competitions

Sports and Competition Technologies impacting success in sports or competition, including before, during or after competition

Robert Martone
Javier Lopez Frias

Armani Porter

Entertainment

Technologies use for entertainment, including virtual/augmented reality and brain-controlled video games

Jeremey Greenberg
Garrett Flynn
Bruce Hecht
Jordi Domingo
Ben Neumeyer
Tamami Fukushi

Analytics

Technologies used to inform decision making, including data used to profile and influence consumers

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