‘If we don't have consent, we need to have beneficence’: requiring beneficence in nonconsensual neurocorrection

Neurointerventions—interventions that cause direct physical, chemical or biological effects on the brain—are sometimes administered to criminal offenders for the purpose of reducing their recidivism risk and promoting their rehabilitation more generally. Ethical debate on this practice (henceforth c...

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Váldodahkki: Dore-Horgan, E
Materiálatiipa: Journal article
Giella:English
Almmustuhtton: Wiley 2022
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author Dore-Horgan, E
author_facet Dore-Horgan, E
author_sort Dore-Horgan, E
collection OXFORD
description Neurointerventions—interventions that cause direct physical, chemical or biological effects on the brain—are sometimes administered to criminal offenders for the purpose of reducing their recidivism risk and promoting their rehabilitation more generally. Ethical debate on this practice (henceforth called ‘neurocorrection’) has focused on the issue of consent, with some authors defending a consent requirement in neurocorrection and others rejecting this. In this paper, I align with the view that consent might not always be necessary for permissible neurocorrective use, but introduce a qualification I argue ought to inform our ethical and legal analysis of neurocorrection if we are to administer neurocorrectives nonconsensually. I maintain our use of nonconsensual neurocorrection should be constrained by a beneficence requirement—that it should be limited to neurocorrectives that can be expected to benefit those required to undergo them; and my argument is that a beneficence requirement is necessary in order to safeguard against offender abuse. I highlight how we afford a heightened protective role to beneficence in other instances of biomedical intervention where consent is absent or in doubt; and I argue a beneficence requirement is also necessary in the correctional context because alternative candidate protections would provide insufficiently strong safeguards on their own. I then consider whether requiring beneficence in nonconsensual neurocorrection would (a) be incompatible with penal theory, (b) be objectionably paternalistic, or (c) foreclose many fruitful avenues of crime control. I argue in each case that it would not.
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spelling oxford-uuid:9845a1a7-a1ed-4cdb-b36e-d034f287b7ea2024-02-22T10:32:30Z‘If we don't have consent, we need to have beneficence’: requiring beneficence in nonconsensual neurocorrectionJournal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_dcae04bcuuid:9845a1a7-a1ed-4cdb-b36e-d034f287b7eaEnglishSymplectic ElementsWiley2022Dore-Horgan, ENeurointerventions—interventions that cause direct physical, chemical or biological effects on the brain—are sometimes administered to criminal offenders for the purpose of reducing their recidivism risk and promoting their rehabilitation more generally. Ethical debate on this practice (henceforth called ‘neurocorrection’) has focused on the issue of consent, with some authors defending a consent requirement in neurocorrection and others rejecting this. In this paper, I align with the view that consent might not always be necessary for permissible neurocorrective use, but introduce a qualification I argue ought to inform our ethical and legal analysis of neurocorrection if we are to administer neurocorrectives nonconsensually. I maintain our use of nonconsensual neurocorrection should be constrained by a beneficence requirement—that it should be limited to neurocorrectives that can be expected to benefit those required to undergo them; and my argument is that a beneficence requirement is necessary in order to safeguard against offender abuse. I highlight how we afford a heightened protective role to beneficence in other instances of biomedical intervention where consent is absent or in doubt; and I argue a beneficence requirement is also necessary in the correctional context because alternative candidate protections would provide insufficiently strong safeguards on their own. I then consider whether requiring beneficence in nonconsensual neurocorrection would (a) be incompatible with penal theory, (b) be objectionably paternalistic, or (c) foreclose many fruitful avenues of crime control. I argue in each case that it would not.
spellingShingle Dore-Horgan, E
‘If we don't have consent, we need to have beneficence’: requiring beneficence in nonconsensual neurocorrection
title ‘If we don't have consent, we need to have beneficence’: requiring beneficence in nonconsensual neurocorrection
title_full ‘If we don't have consent, we need to have beneficence’: requiring beneficence in nonconsensual neurocorrection
title_fullStr ‘If we don't have consent, we need to have beneficence’: requiring beneficence in nonconsensual neurocorrection
title_full_unstemmed ‘If we don't have consent, we need to have beneficence’: requiring beneficence in nonconsensual neurocorrection
title_short ‘If we don't have consent, we need to have beneficence’: requiring beneficence in nonconsensual neurocorrection
title_sort if we don t have consent we need to have beneficence requiring beneficence in nonconsensual neurocorrection
work_keys_str_mv AT dorehorgane ifwedonthaveconsentweneedtohavebeneficencerequiringbeneficenceinnonconsensualneurocorrection