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Neurointerventions and the Law

Regulating Human Mental Capacity

Thomas Nadelhoffer editor Allan McCay editor Nicole A Vincent editor

Format:Hardback

Publisher:Oxford University Press Inc

Published:17th Jul '20

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Neurointerventions and the Law cover

This volume makes a contribution to the field of neurolaw by investigating issues raised by the development, use, and regulation of neurointerventions. The broad range of topics covered in these chapters reflects neurolaw's growing social import, and its rapid expansion as an academic field of inquiry. Some authors investigate the criminal justice system's use of neurointerventions to make accused defendants fit for trial, to help reform convicted offenders, or to make condemned inmates sane enough for execution, while others interrogate the use, regulation, and social impact of cognitive enhancement medications and devices. Issues raised by neurointervention-based gay conversion "therapy", efficacy and safety of specific neurointervention methods, legitimacy of their use and regulation, and their implications for authenticity, identity, and responsibility are among the other topics investigated. Dwelling on neurointerventions also highlights tacit assumptions about human nature that have important implications for jurisprudence. For all we know, at present such things as people's capacity to feel pain, their sexuality, and the dictates of their conscience, are unalterable. But neurointerventions could hypothetically turn such constants into variables. The increasing malleability of human nature means that analytic jurisprudential claims (true in virtue of meanings of jurisprudential concepts) must be distinguished from synthetic jurisprudential claims (contingent on what humans are actually like). Looking at the law through the lens of neurointerventions thus also highlights the growing need for a new distinction — between analytic jurisprudence and synthetic jurisprudence — to tackle issues that increasingly malleable humans will face when they encounter novel opportunities and challenges.

A wave of new and proposed technologies to alter the brain have enlivened debate about when interventions should be considered morally and legally permissible. The editors have assembled a top-notch group of international contributors with the philosophical and scientific knowledge to make real progress. The contributions are wide-ranging, insightful, and rigorous and should be read by scholars, students, and thoughtful laypeople interested in how new technologies are shaping and will continue to shape law, medicine, and society more generally." -Adam Kolber, Professor of Law, Brooklyn Law School
This timely cutting-edge collection vividly demonstrates why neurolaw's transdisciplinary lens is required to address current and emerging pressing questions regarding the justification of legal systems, their laws, and practices. Whether those questions concern the bases of moral (and legal) responsibility, the defensible deployment of neurointerventions, or the legal regulation of their use, careful engagement with neuroscience and psychology is essential. The contributors to this collection take up this task, expertly synthesizing science, philosophy, and legal scholarship. An essential read for anyone wishing to stay abreast of developments in this fast-paced, sophisticated, and important flourishing field." -Hannah Maslen, Deputy Director, Oxford Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics, University of Oxford; Editor-in-Chief, Neuroethics

ISBN: 9780190651145

Dimensions: 156mm x 234mm x 25mm

Weight: 816g

464 pages