XVII International Seminar of the UNESCO Chair in Bioethics of the University of Barcelona: “Universal Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights and neuroethics”

Theme:

After the decade of the brain, neuroscience research showed unthinkable technological advances, opening the way for the unavoidable need for multidisciplinary work in research applied to the field of health, particularly in neurosciences.

Important changes regarding the diagnosis, intervention, and recovery of neurological diseases are already occurring and are expected. Neuroscience research also shows future advances around mental health and the chance of developing multidimensional techniques that make it possible to establish accurate diagnoses and even new therapeutic possibilities.

Research around the brain (in particular, the human one) demands generous funding, suggesting that a variety of actors and institutions understand that neuroscience has a significant potential to improve neuroscience therapeutic practices in the clinical and surgical fields.

In any case, there is also a current of intense skepticism regarding the offers (diagnostic and therapeutic), which goes hand in hand with the uncertainties still associated with this field of research and its impact on the “real” world of medicine: human rights, privacy, autonomy, interference and manipulation, as well as, of course, equality.