The first AJOB Neuroscience issue of 2009 is now available at bioethics.net. This issue contains a Target Article by researchers from Dalhousie University who are exploring the ethical issues associated with non-clinical uses of pediatric fMRI, particularly in as it related to the educational system and legal settings. Fenton, Meynell and Baylis discuss the potential benefits and harms that may come from the use of this technology used on children and multiple authors respond via Open Peer Commentary–some arguing that this is just fear of new technology writ large, others arguing that because we are talking about children this is particularly dangerous, and others arguing that the settings themselves are what make the use of the technology inappropriate.
The second target article by Muller discusses whether the elective amputation of limbs by those suffering from BIID (body integrity identity disorder) is ever ethically justified and furthermore, whether it is ethically justified in the ways that ethicists have previously argued. Muller doubts that autonomy arguments used by bioethicists (and others) to justify physicians amputating limbs can be justified and argues that BIID is a neuropyschological disturbance.
This issue also includes abstracts from the first annual meeting of the Neuroethics Society. Full-text of the abstracts is available for download at bioethics.net.
Summer Johnson, PhD