Neuroethics, please!

In addition to discussing the basics of neuroscience with the Tibetan monastics in India, I plan to bring up topics related to neuroethics.  The field of neuroethics deals with the moral, legal, social, and cultural implications of neuroscience.  One of the world leaders in this field is my friend Dr. Judy Illes.  Dr. Illes is a professor of neurology at the University of British Columbia (UBC) in Vancouver, B.C.  She is also the Canada Research Chair in Neuroethics and the director of the National Core for Neuroethics at UBC.

I phoned Judy last week to get her ideas for specific topics and questions that would make for good discussion.  She and I came up with a good list of possible neuroethical questions that the monks and nuns could debate; here are a few of them:

What if a future neurological or mental disease could be predicted?  Would you want to know?  Should a doctor tell you?  Would it make a difference if the disease could be cured?  What if the chance of the getting the disease was only 10%  What if it was 99%

What is intelligence? How can (should) intelligence be measure?

What should researchers do if they find an incidental finding during a study?  What is their responsibility?   Should they tell their experimental subject if the finding is not part of the research?  What if the finding had no significant health risk?  Does it matter if the researcher was an MD or a PhD?

What is the difference between an "abnormality" and just "being different?"  How should this be determined and what, if anything, should be done?

The answers to these questions are open for debate and are shaped by an individual's own background and culture.  I look forward to learning from the monks and nuns about their way of thinking about these questions.