Ethical Challenges Posed by Neurotechnology in Treating Disability

Abstract

As the applications of neurotechnology like DBS are increasingly accepted by the public, many people are concerned about the risk of such treatment. This paper is focused on the potential ethical issues posed by the treatment of neurotechnology. Two ethical issues, informed consent, and patient selection would be expressed in detail by analyzing case studies and other related papers. In many cases related to children, parents and doctors did not make the appropriate assessment of the risk and benefits of the treatment. Therefore, it caused needless problems on the effect of the operation and postoperative care. Furthermore, sometimes patients and doctors focus on the different risks of benefits of an operation. Firstly, parents and doctors should be responsible for children who cannot make decisions about important and risky treatment. Secondly, patients need to have a good chance of benefiting from surgery and at the same time, doctors should inform patients benefits and risks of the treatment.