Medical breakthroughs related to the rewired human brain, show us it’s past time to catch ethics up to the electrodes, currents and rebooting efforts now out there.
For instance …
1. People who experience brain stimulation have been known to turn frowns into smiles when voltage increases. Will that procedure encourage people to over rely on science to solve problems that lead to satisfaction and well-being? 
2. Let’s say a person is seriously brain damaged at work. What if the operation to rewire the brain with electrodes causes the person to awaken and begin to feel better now but create further problems down the road? Should operations take place without people’s prior consent?
3. After rewiring operations some people’s mental health increases. In some cases, happiness continues to increase steadily after an operation to rewire electrodes. What about highly intellectual people – who come through with only basic functions restored – but who cannot return to work or live an independent life?
4. Some people may not take advantage of more natural approaches to rewire the human brain’s plasticity ... or others may request these surgeries to help ward off a degenerative disease. At what point do we decide who would get more from a chance to become disability-free? Who decides?
With the increasing demands on rewiring operations to cure conditions such as depression and obsessive-compulsive problems … larger questions are looming about how far to go with newly developed medical capabilities.
What do you think should be the guiding ethical standard for using deep brain stimulation procedures? More importantly … who should decide?
This could potentially be another step down the dangerous road we've been heading. Increased technology seems to be correlated with a decrease in human attributes such as perserverence, work ethic, patience, and compassion. To be able to rewire the brain "artificially", as opposed to through hard work, tells me that there are people out there that are ok with the fact that we're becoming more robotic and less human every day.
Posted by: Deron S. | August 31, 2007 4:13 AM | Permalink to Comment