The Aims of Neuroethics in Clinical Medicine and Scientific Research
Bioethics and Neuroethics. Two roads that share some common ground, but each leading you into a complex arena of ethical issues quite different from the other. We are bewildered at the complexity of our brains, and we have nothing concrete to say about the workings of the conscious mind. However, as we push the envelope in neuro-based therapies, we are guided by an ever-developing set of ethics. Sociologists, philosophers, scientists and physicians each need to contribute to Neuroethics, as it will guide our generation into the new realm of neuro-therapeautics. Within this section, we will explore what neuroethics truly is, and what it has to say about the current state of neurobiolgical disease. We aim to refine our definitions of psychiatric disease, and shed light onto the moral guidelines behind neuro-interventional procedures. Further, we look to critique the current mental-health system, and provide realistic guidelines for a better community of mental-health advocates. A deeper insight into how the biomedical community views the most respected organ in the universe is provided by leading thinkers in the field of psychiatry, neurosurgery and radiology. As technology begins to cut its way into the brain, literally, we must build up a field that inculcates the values and standards necessary to ethically guide these innovations. The limitations to how the brain must be treated are set by Neuroethics, and the rules by which hospitals and research centers alike must follow are administered by this developing field. Neuroethics does not belong to the domain of medicine alone. It is a synthesis of thought between the humanitarian scholar and the researcher alike; it is a deeper look into the relationship between the mind and the body. More importantly, Neuroethics is the platform by which we may open a dialogue between utterly opposite fields of study, and incorporate them into a painted beauty of art which illustrates the ever-growing nature of medicine, and its impact on every arena in the known universe.