The Ethical Brain: The Science of Our Moral Dilemmas

Scientific advancements have led to many ethical quandaries covered elsewhere: THE ETHICAL BRAIN: THE SCIENCE OF OUR MORAL DILEMMAS is something different, surveying the link between increasing knowledge and the formation of new moral principles. It comes from a neuro-scientist who examines emerging social and ethical issues coming from the latest brain research, offering an exploration of interrelated scientific and social issues. From neuroscience in the courtroom affecting legal issues to new perspectives on differences between lab and real-world applications, THE ETHICAL BRAIN is an important acquisition for any collection concerned with medical or scientific ethical issues. Diane C. Donovan California Bookwatch

John LeCarre once quipped that "Ethics" was a small county east of London. "Ethics" has long eluded a fixed definition. Gazzaniga takes a more serious view. So serious, in fact, that this book should be required reading in every school and seminary. The author recognizes that our behaviour is rooted in our brain - and the mind is its form of expression of those traits. Findings on how the brain works are drastically changing how we do and should view behaviour - ours and that of others. There is more than neuroscience here, however, unlike most of his previous work. Every chapter touches on the values of our society and the laws enforcing them. His concern over these issues is clear, and readily matched by the clarity of his narrative. He writes to a broad audience with effective prose style. Each chapter of this book addresses a specific issue. Within the chapters, the organisation is specific. The background is presented based on the latest information. The arguments are given concerning what stances have been taken, what evidence supports them and suggests posssible modifications to them. The future possibilities are outlined with the logic and potential impact of keeping to a current path or breaking away into new ground. He offers choices, chiefly based on what kind of society we wish to have. One thing is abundantly clear - new directions must be taken in an informed environment (awkward). Emotional acceptance or rejection have little place here. Current values must be carefully examined in light of reality. It's especially important to note that "responsibility", the basis for our legal system, lies within a social, not just an individual framework. Values are learned, they are not ingrained nor constant. Beginning, logically, with the embryo, the author traces the development of the foetus from conception. He shows how the body is organised and when neuronal activity can be detected. That, surprisingly, is well along in the sequence. Those arguing a little human is formed at conception are clearly wrong, since without a functioning brain, the embryo is well short of being a "person". The issue raised, however, has nothing to do with abortion. It is a response to the blanket policy of the US administration on stem cell research. The policy is clearly flawed, he asserts, and should be modified in light of embryonic research. Such research has also raised the issue of "designer babies", another of his concerns. How should our technologically advanced and competitive society use science in "advancing" the species? During his tenure on that council, Gazzaniga raised the question of what can actually be "tinkered" to produce the desired results. "Genetically engineering" for high intelligence, immediately raises the point that "genes for intelligence" have yet to be identified - if such codon complexes even exist. Further, whether intelligence or other features are to be selected for, what are the downstream

Brain-Based Values Patricia S. Churchland Originally appeared in The American Scientist, July 2005. Envision this scene: Socrates sits in prison, calmly awaiting execution, passing the time in philosophical discussions with students and friends, taking the occasion to inquire into the fundamentals of ethics: Where do moral laws come from? What is the root of moral motivation? What is the relation between power and morality? What is good? What is just? Ever modest, Socrates confesses ignorance of the answers. The pattern of questioning strongly hints, however, that whatever it is that makes something good or just is rooted in the nature of humans and the society we make, not in the nature of the gods we invent. This does not make moral rules mere conventions, like using a fork or covering one's breasts. There is something about the facts concerning human needs that entails that some laws are better than others. From the time of Socrates to the present, people have sought to give a natural basis for morals-that is, to understand how a moral statement about what ought to be done can rest on hard facts, albeit facts about conditions for civility and peace in social groups. How can ethical claims be more than mere conventions? How can such claims be rooted in facts about human nature but have the logical force of a command? Developments in evolutionary biology have helped to explain the appearance of moral motivation in humans and in other eusocial animals-animals that display behavior involving cooperation, sharing, division of labor, reciprocation and deception. In these species, various forms of punishment (shunning, biting, banishing, scolding) are visited on those who threaten the social norms. Ethological studies help us appreciate that, at a basic level, human social behavior has much in common with that of other species. Developments in neuroscience hold out the promise of extending the naturalistic perspective to aid in the understanding of how the brain and its circuitry underlie the capacity to learn social norms and to behave in accordance with them. Many of us ponder the possibility that discoveries about brain function and organization will challenge the conventional wisdom on which our system of justice relies and will allow us to see more deeply into the biology of social behavior, including moral behavior. In his new book, The Ethical Brain, Michael S. Gazzaniga takes an unflinching look at the interface between neuroscience and ethics, and offers his own thoughtful perspective on some of the tough questions. As a graduate student at Caltech, Gazzaniga studied under one of the towering figures of neuroscience, Roger Sperry, whose lab pioneered research into the cognitive effects of cutting the fibers connecting the two cerebral hemispheres (a procedure used to treat intractable epilepsy). Ingenious testing of these so-called "split brain" patients revealed that their two brain hemispheres operated independently, each hemisphere

This is a great, necessary AND daunting book. Not daunting in how it is written-- Gazzaniga is a clear writer-- but it what it suggests, namely that as right as you think you are is as wrong as you can turn out to be. As much as we humans like to think we aren't governed by reflex, but by reflection this books demonstrates that the circuitry in our brains can be "hard-wired" in such a way as to set up reflexes in our mind and make true objectivity very difficult. Maybe the lesson to take from it is to assume that we all shoot from the hip much of the time and need to pause more and gather as much facts and data as we can before we come to a conclusion. Very thought provoking. I would recommend this book highly.

An inquiry into an emerging field. Research is telling us more and more how the brain works. And as we learn more and more, a lot comes into conflict with what a lot of us want to believe. If evolution presented a crisis between the evolutionists and the creationists, wait until the raft of issues discussed here become more mainstream in the science textbooks. Starting off with a strong step into when is a fetus alive, he jumps quickly to stem cell research he asks some very interesting questions: "Does the mother of five, hiding from the Gestapo have the moral duty or right to smother the crying baby so the whole family will not be caught and shot?" The future offers the promise of many more such decisions in the future from "designer babies" to learning more that so called "free will" just may not exist at all. As we live in a time of growing religions fundamentalism, be it muslim or Christian, the future promises to be a most interesting place. This is a book that will make you think of many things in a different light.