Neuroethics
August 28, 2026
De Miguel Beriain, Aníbal M. Astobiza, Francesca Tassinari et al.
Abstract The rapid advance of neurotechnology has produced a vibrant scholarly and legislative debate around neurorights — a proposed generation of human rights designed to protect mental privacy, cognitive liberty, mental integrity, and psychological continuity against the most threatening applications of neurotechnology. This article argues that the neurorights framework, while representing a...
Neuroethics
May 31, 2026
Fangxu Han, Haidan Chen
Advances in Brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) have intensified debates about their alleged capacity to read minds and the implications for mental privacy. Prevailing accounts often assume that brain data can reveal inner mental states, framing privacy as a matter of data protection. Yet experimental demonstrations, such as PIN decoding or semantic reconstruction, show that successful decoding...
Neuroethics
May 13, 2026
Christina Chwyl, Alissa Bazinet, Adrianne R Wilson-Poe et al.
Informed consent in psychedelic-assisted services is ethically complex, difficult to implement, and remains largely unstudied and unstandardized. The current study sought expert recommendations on informed consent challenges, best practices and recommendations for supervised psilocybin experiences across various settings. Participants with psilocybin content expertise and psilocybin providers...
Neuroethics
December 29, 2025
Phoebe Friesen
Psychedelic science is haunted. A dark past, and contemporary violations, litter the field with ghosts of appropriation, abuse, and a violent war on drugs. Yet, these forms of haunting often remain unseen in discussions of the ethical aspects of psychedelic science. This manuscript explores various ways in which ghosts populate our collective and individual set and settings when it comes to...
Neuroethics
August 1, 2025
Brandon Long, David Resnik
Recent advancements in brain research have drastically increased the need for serious ethical consideration. Postmortem brain research has taken a significant step in the development of BrainEx. The technology can metabolically resuscitate pig brains from pigs that were "clinically dead" for hours. Ethical discourse around organoids ranges from being overly cautious and sensational to highly...
Neuroethics
April 1, 2025
Christopher Poppe, Daniel Villiger, Dimitris Repantis et al.
9 citations
Abstract In the present paper, we analyze the ethical issues in training for psychedelic therapy and discuss mitigation strategies for these issues. Specifically, after describing models of psychedelic training, we describe four problems of psychedelic training: (1) the imperative for comprehensive training due to vulnerability of participants, (2) psychedelic but not psychotherapeutic...
Neuroethics
March 1, 2025
Adrian Kind
1 citation
Abstract The Comforting Delusion Objection is a central argument in the emerging field of Philosophy of Psychedelics. It posits that while psychedelics may benefit the mental well-being of individuals they also give rise to epistemically unreliable metaphysical beliefs that are incompatible with a naturalist worldview. Assuming naturalism is the correct stance, the result is significant...
Neuroethics
August 24, 2024
Nathan Emmerich
3 citations
Abstract This essay engages with the (re)emergence of psychedelic medicine and the idea of psychedelics drugs and the experiences they induce as a developing therapeutic modality. It does so in the context of the provision of psychedelics to terminally ill patients experiencing existential distress as they approach the end of their lives. Reflecting on such suggestions facilitates an...
Neuroethics
June 20, 2024
Logan Neitzke-Spruill, Caroline Beit, Jill O. Robinson et al.
26 citations
Psychedelic experiences are often compared to “transformative experiences” due to their potential to change how people think and behave. This study empirically examines whether psychedelic experiences constitute transformative experiences. Given psychedelics’ prospective applications as treatments for mental health disorders, this study also explores neuroethical issues raised by the...
Neuroethics
May 17, 2024
Chris Letheby
14 citations
Increasing evidence suggests that psychedelic experiences, undergone in controlled conditions, can have various durable psychological benefits. One such benefit is reductions in fear of death, which have been attested in both psychiatric patients and healthy people. This paper addresses the question: how, exactly, do psychedelic experiences reduce fear of death? It argues, against some...
Neuroethics
April 24, 2024
Neil L Levy
Most philosophers think that phenomenal consciousness underlies, or at any rate makes a large contribution, to moral considerability. This paper argues that many such accounts invoke question-begging arguments. Moreover, they’re unable to explain apparent differences in moral status across and within different species. In the light of these problems, I argue that we ought to take very seriously...
Neuroethics
April 1, 2024
Nicholas Royle
AbstractThis short communication explores the idea of “stream of consciousness” and considers some of the ways in which scientific writing relies – even or perhaps especially insofar as it does not signal this fact – on the resources of literary language and literary thinking. Particular attention is given to notions of literal and figurative or metaphorical language, including “hydrological”...
Neuroethics
March 16, 2024
Nicolas Langlitz, Alex K. Gearin
26 citations
Abstract In the historical context of a crisis in biological psychiatry, psychedelic drugs paired with psychotherapy are globally re-emerging in research clinics as a potential transdiagnostic therapy for treating mood disorders, addictions, and other forms of psychological distress. The treatments are poised to soon shift from clinical trials to widespread service delivery in places like...
Neuroethics
February 15, 2024
Daniel Villiger
26 citations
A psychedelic renaissance is currently taking place in mental healthcare. The number of psychedelic-assisted therapy trials is growing steadily, and some countries already grant psychiatrists special permission to use psychedelics in non-research contexts under certain conditions. These clinical advances must be accompanied by ethical inquiry. One pressing ethical question involves whether...
Neuroethics
November 6, 2023
Edward Jacobs, Ashleigh Murphy-Beiner, Ian Rouiller et al.
23 citations
Abstract The ethical value—and to some scholars, necessity—of providing trial patients with post-trial access (PTA) to an investigational drug has been subject to significant attention in the field of research ethics. Although no consensus has emerged, it seems clear that, in some trial contexts, various factors make PTA particularly appropriate. We outline the atypical aspects of psychedelic...
Neuroethics
May 25, 2022
Emma C. Gordon
10 citations
Abstract Moral enhancement proposals struggle to be both plausible and ethically defensible while nevertheless interestingly distinct from both cognitive enhancement as well as (mere) moral education. Brian Earp ( Royal Institute of Philosophy Supplement 83:415–439, 12) suggests that a promising middle ground lies in focusing on the (suitably qualified) use of psychedelics as adjuncts to moral...
Neuroethics
April 26, 2017
Rafael Ahlskog
22 citations
Current suggestions for capacities that should be targeted for moral enhancement has centered on traits like empathy, fairness or aggression. The literature, however, lacks a proper model for understanding the interplay and complexity of moral capacities, which limits the practicability of proposed interventions. In this paper, I integrate some existing knowledge on the nature of human moral...
Neuroethics
May 14, 2010
Felicitas Kraemer
56 citations
This article will examine how the notion of emotional authenticity is intertwined with the notions of naturalness and artificiality in the context of the recent debates about 'neuro-enhancement' and 'neuro-psychopharmacology.' In the philosophy of mind, the concept of authenticity plays a key role in the discussion of the emotions. There is a widely held intuition that an artificial means will...