Neuroethics 2025
Schedule
Registration
This panel of four philosophers will assess the question of who isn’t currently sitting at the neuroethics table: that is to say, which ethical approaches have yet to hold significant sway, and which might aid neuroethical endeavors. We focus on how virtue ethics, feminist disabilities studies, critical technologies studies, critical race theory, and black feminist bioethics can support ethical advancement in artificial intelligence and human enhancement.
Speakers:
- Ashley Feinsinger, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Neurosurgery, Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles (moderator, in-person)
- Ally Peabody Smith, PhD, Assistant Professor of Population Health, Lehigh University College of Health (speaker, in-person)
- Lilyana Levy, PhD, Postdoctoral Scholar, Department of Neurosurgery, Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles (speaker)
- Keisha Ray, PhD, Associate Professor of Bioethics and Medical Humanities, McGovern Medical School (speaker, in-person)
Agenda
- Introductions (Feinsinger)
- Virtue ethics and feminist philosophy of science (Peabody Smith)
- Feminist disabilities studies and critical technology studies (Levy)
- Power dynamics and black feminist bioethics (Ray)
- Discussion amongst panelists, facilitated by Feinsinger
- Audience Q & A
Attend
Neuroethics 2025
Friday, April 25, 2025
1:15-2:15pm CEST
Plenary
This discussion is being held as part of Neuroethics 2025, the joint annual meeting of the International Neuroethics Society (INS) and Società Italiana di Neuroetica (SINe). Register for the conference to see this session in-person in Munich or to participate virtually. Virtual participants can watch the live broadcast and submit questions to the discussion. All registrants get access to the recordings before the general public.
Description
This panel will assess philosophical frameworks that have yet to garner sufficient influence in neuroethics, but that have tools to support ethical advancement in artificial intelligence and human enhancement.
First, Ally Peabody Smith will begin with a discussion of the meta-level theoretical approaches that dominate neuroethics (consequentialism and deontology) and will show how the tradition of virtue ethics holds promise for evaluating rapidly advancing neurotechnologies. Virtue ethical approaches, particularly when sensitive to the social enterprise underlying scientific research made explicit by feminist philosophers of science, enable researchers to cultivate the imagination, attentiveness, and granularity necessary to assess technologies that have the potential to profoundly alter the most intimate aspects of human lives.
Next, Lilyana Levy will draw on resources from feminist disability studies and critical technology studies to consider how emerging technologies like AI and neural interfaces are developed within, and often reinforce, interlocking systems of oppression (Noble 2018, Eubanks 2018, Broussard 2023). Levy will explore implications for emerging neurotechnologies whose development is often justified by long-term benefits these technologies may provide for future disabled people, arguing that these technologies are similarly positioned to reinforce ableist bias.
Third, Ian Peebles will turn to the significance of distributive justice and attention to race for conversations about human enhancement. Many proponents of human enhancement appeal to general well-being as justification for the use and distribution of enhancements (Savulescu 2007; Harris 2009; Persson and Savulescu 2012a, 2012b). But, consequentialist arguments that prioritize general well-being are not adequately equipped to adjudicate issues of justice related to human cognitive enhancement, largely due to their lack of acknowledgement of the history of race and (supposed) cognitive differences between races.
Finally, Keisha Ray will address access sociopolitical issues in neuroenhancement from a power framework: which groups have and lack power, and how hierarchies affect access, disability, and the ethics of enhancement. Bringing expertise in black feminist bioethics to the fore, Ray will argue that attention to power dynamics facilitates a shift in perspective that highlights the needs of marginalized populations, as opposed to granting additional benefits to already-advantaged groups.
The goal of this panel is to advance the audience’s understanding of non-traditional ethical theories that will promote more just ethical outcomes in research surrounding AI and cognitive enhancement.
Resources
References
- Savulescu, J. (2007). Genetic interventions and the ethics of enhancement of human beings. In B. Steinbock (Ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Bioethics (pp. 516-35). Oxford University Press.
- Harris, J. (2009). Enhancements are a moral obligation. In J. Savulescu & N. Bostrom (Eds.), Human Enhancement (131-54). Oxford University Press.
- Persson, I., & Savulescu, J. (2012a). Unfit For the Future?: The Need for Moral Enhancement. Oxford University Press.
- Julian Savulescu, Ingmar Persson. (2012b). Moral enhancement, freedom, and the god machine. The Monist 95(3), 399-421. https://doi.org/10.5840/monist201295321
Keywords: Artificial intelligence, Cognitive enhancement, Virtue ethics, Feminist philosophy of science, Disability justice, Critical race theory, Distributive justice, Critical technology studies, Power dynamics, Black feminist bioethics, Feminist neuroethics
Speakers
Ally Peabody Smith, PhD
Assistant Professor of Population Health
Lehigh University, College of Health
Lilyana Levy, PhD
Postdoctoral Researcher
UCLA DGSOM
Keisha Ray
University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston
McGovern Medical School
Ashley Feinsinger
Assistant Professor
UCLA DGSOM