NE Neuro Outline

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Navigate this course: Neuro Outline - Neuro Chat

Sign up is closed now, but follow the first batch of students on the neuroethics blog at http://blogs.p2pu.org/neurobiolaw/.

If you have any questions about this course, please contact neuro@p2pu.org.

Objectives of the Course

The goals of the course are:

To give you an overview on Neuroethics and a first contact to International Human Rights Law;
To introduce you to Universal Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights;
To help you understand how neuroethical issues are related to human rights and their protection.

Target Group

This course is intended to Law students and legal professionals who would like to know more about Neuroethics field and to neuroethicists who would like to have a first contact to international human rights law.

Sense maker

This course is going to be conducted and facilitated by Ana Rosa Amorim, international and philosophy of law teacher.

Expectations

This is an introductory college-level seminar. You should plan on investing approximately 12 hours a week in class-related work.

Class Meetings

This class meets only asynchronously online. We may hold optional, synchronous "social" meetings during the our 6 weeks.

Assignments

Weekly Reading and Blogging

Each week you should read the assigned material and blog answers to the questions for the week, or simply complete assignments for weeks when there are no readings or questions. Your blogging should demonstrate your understanding of the assigned reading material and should include original thoughts and synthesis. Don't just summarize readings. Making connections between the week's readings and either previous readings or previous blogging (of your own or of other students!) is strongly encouraged. Blog posts should be made by 11:59pm Sunday night the week the reading is assigned (see Late Work Policy below). A short final paper will be required at the end of the course. Any topic discussed during the course can be chosen.

Grading

Weekly assignments will be graded according to (1) the degree to which they completely answer the questions asked, (2) the degree to which they demonstrate understanding of the assigned reading material, and (3) the degree to which original thinking is evident in the writing. An extra point may be awarded when a student draws on and references others student writing effectively.

Schedule

PART I – Presenting Neuroethics

Week 1: Neuroethics: An emerging field

Objective: Provide an overall perspective on Neuroethics.

Assignments: - Post entries to your blog, answering each one of the questions proposed below.

- Create an wiki page, jointly with your colleagues, presenting brain imaging methods and its relations to Neuroethics.

Questions:

1) Is it appropriate to start talking about a neurocentric age?

2) How the emergence of new neurocientific techniques has provoked bioethical issues?

3) Are we our brains? Are all bioethical issues nothing but neuroethical issues?

4) How do cognitive neuroscience and brain imaging contribute to neuroethics field?

Key readings:

#1 Neuroethics: a modern context for ethics in neuroscience, Judy Illes and Stephanie J. Bird (http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?tool=pubmed&pubmedid=16859760)

#2 Neuroethics: the practical and the philosophical, Martha J. Farah

#3 Comment on “Does it make sense to speak of neuroethics?”, Eric Racine (http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/picrender.fcgi?artid=2246623&blobtype=pdf)

#4 Human agency in the neurocentric age, Stephen P. R. Rose

(http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/picrender.fcgi?artid=1371044&blobtype=pdf)

#5 Mapping the cerebral subject in contemporary culture - Fracisco Ortega and Fernando Vidal(http://www.brainhood.net/online-texts/ortega_vidal.pdf)

#6 Neuroethics: an agenda for neuroscience and society, Jonathan Moreno

#7Monitoring and manipulating the human brain: new neuroscience technologies and their ethical implications, Martha J. Farah and Paul Root Wolpe

#8 What is Neuroethics? Questions and Answers with Stephen Hyman

http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=13426

Video resources:

#1 Living in a Neurosociety: A Neuroethics Overview

Dr. Martha Farah, Walter H. Annenberg Professor of Natural Sciences and Director of the Penn Center for Neuroscience & Society

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZbG0AxDx7c)

Links:

# 1 Neuroethics Core, University of British Columbia http://www.neuroethics.ubc.ca/National_Core_for_Neuroethics/Home.html

Excellent website, providing links to resources, neuroethics courses, articles and events.

#2 Center for Neuroscience and Society (http://neuroethics.upenn.edu/)

Superb collection of articles, videos and information on Neuroethics.

# 3 The Oxford Centre for Neuroethics (http://www.neuroethics.ox.ac.uk/)

Another good website.

#4 Neuroethics Society http://www.neuroethicssociety.org/

Part II – Legal Concepts

Week 2: Introducing International Law – Concepts and main documents

Objective: Provide a first contact to International Human Rights Law.

Assignments: Write a post entry about international human rights law and its relations to life sciences issues. Visit UNESCO website to learn how Universal Declaration on Bioethics was elaborated.

Key readings:

#1 The concept of International Law, Phillip Allott

http://www.ejil.org/pdfs/10/1/577.pdf

#2 The International Human Rights Movement: Part of the Problem?, David Kennedy

http://www.law.harvard.edu/students/orgs/hrj/iss15/kennedy.shtml

#3 Universal Declaration of Human Rights

http://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/

# 4 Universal Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights

http://portal.unesco.org/shs/en/ev.php-URL_ID=1883&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html

Links:

# 1 European Journal of International Law links

http://www.ejil.org/links/index.php

Week 3: Introducing International Biolaw and Universal Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights

Objective: Discuss the emergence of International Biolaw as a new field and analyze Universal Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights.

Assignments: Post entries to your blog, answering each one of the questions proposed below.

Questions:

- Can international law regulate bioethics?

- Is it appropriate to talk about the idea of universality and bioethics?

- How binding is Universal Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights?

Key readings:

#1 Universal Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights

http://portal.unesco.org/shs/en/ev.php-URL_ID=1883&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html

#2 International Law and Life Sciences, Christian Byk

http://www.iales.org/doc_anglais/International%20biolaw.pdf

#3 Global bioethics at UNESCO: In defense of Universal Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights, Roberto Andorno

http://www.ethik.uzh.ch/ibme/team/andorno/Andorno-Bioethics_UNESCO.pdf

#4 The Universal Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights: bioethics, a civilising utopia in the age of globalisation?, Christian Byk

http://www.iales.org/doc_anglais/The%20universal%20declaration%20on%20bioethics%20and%20human%20rights.pdf

Further readings

#1 The Invaluable Role of Soft Law in the Development of Universal Norms in Bioethics, Roberto Andorno

http://www.unesco.de/1507.html?&L=0

# 2 La notion de dignité humaine est-elle superflue en bioéthique?, Roberto Andorno

http://www.ethik.uzh.ch/ibme/team/andorno/Andorno-Dignite.pdf (for french speakers)

#3 The right to health in international human rights law, Virginia A. Leary

http://www.hhrjournal.org/archives-pdf/4065261.pdf.bannered.pdf

PART III – NEUROETHICS AND HUMAN RIGHTS RELATIONS

Week 4: Self, Enhancement and Human Dignity

Objective: Discuss brain enhancement and its relation to the concept of human dignity.

Assignments: Write a post entry on your blog discussing how brain enhancement impact on identity and on the concept of self and how human dignity legal principle defended by Universal Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights can help preserving identity.

Key readings:

#1 Universal Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights

http://portal.unesco.org/shs/en/ev.php-URL_ID=1883&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html

#2 Good, better, best?, Arthur Caplan

#3 Towards responsible use of cognitive-enhancing drugs by the healthy, Henry Greely, Philip Campbell, Barbara Sahakian, John Harris, Ronald C. Kessler, Michael Gazzaniga, and Martha J. Farah

#4 Neurocognitive Enhancement: what can we do and what should we do?, Martha J. Farah, Judy Illes, Robert Cook-Deegan, Howard Gardner, Eric Kandel, Patricia King, Eric Parens, Barbara Sahakian, and Paul Root Wolpe

#5 Disagreements with implications: diverging discourses on the ethics of non-medical use of methylphenidate for performance enhancement, Cynthia Forlini and Eric Racine

http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/picrender.fcgi?artid=2719652&blobtype=pdf&tool=pmcentrez

#6 Human Dignity and Judicial Interpretation of Human Rights, Christopher McCrudder

http://www.ejil.org/pdfs/19/4/1658.pdf

Further reading:

#1 Health and Human Rights, Jonathan M. Mann and colleagues

http://www.hhrjournal.org/archives-pdf/4065260.pdf.bannered.pdf

Video resources:

#1 Steven Pinker chalks it up to the blank slate

http://www.ted.com/talks/steven_pinker_chalks_it_up_to_the_blank_slate.html

#2 Michael Merzenich on re-wiring the brain

http://www.ted.com/talks/michael_merzenich_on_the_elastic_brain.html

#3 Christopher deCharms looks inside the brain

http://www.ted.com/talks/christopher_decharms_scans_the_brain_in_real_time.html

Links:

#1 Law and Neuroscience Blog

http://lawneuro.typepad.com/the-law-and-neuroscience-blog/

Week 5: Brain Imaging and Privacy

Objective: Discuss brain imaging and its impact on right to privacy.

Assignments: Write a post entry on your blog discussing how invasive brain imaging techniques can be. Analyze Universal Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights and see what articles can be applied to situations involving brain scans.

Key readings:

#1 Universal Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights

http://portal.unesco.org/shs/en/ev.php-URL_ID=1883&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html

#2 Neuroimaging: Separating the Promise from the Pipe Dreams, Russell A. Poldrack

http://www.dana.org/news/cerebrum/detail.aspx?id=22220

#3 Monitoring and manipulating the human brain: new neuroscience technologies and their ethical implications, Martha J. Farah and Paul Root Wolpe

#4 Incidental Findings on Brain Imaging Researches, Judy Illes and colleagues

http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/picrender.fcgi?artid=1524853&blobtype=pdf

#5 The challenge of incidental findings, Susan M. Wolf,

http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/picrender.fcgi?artid=2587006&blobtype=pdf

#6 Imaging or Imagining, Judy Illes and Eric Racine

http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/picrender.fcgi?artid=1506750&blobtype=pdf&tool=pmcentrez