Rapidly expanding knowledge in the basic and clinical neurosciences offers not only the promise of dramatic cures for debilitating illness but a transformed understanding of how the brain works, thus altering our view of the human mind, personhood, responsibility, and personal identity. A planning committee of neuroscientists and bioethics scholars from Stanford University and the University of California, San Francisco have organized an exploratory conference, to be held in San Francisco, May 13-14 2002, to define and chart a new field: """"""""neuroethics."""""""" With support from the Dana Foundation, this state of the art conference will provide a forum for discussion and debate among neuroscientists, scholars in ethics and in humanities, and public policy markers. The primary outcome of he conference will be a summary publication addressed to an educated lay audience setting forth the challenges of a new field-neuroethics. This document will be broadly distributed to scientists, research funders, and policy makers. A set of articles based on the conference proceedings, aimed primarily at an academic audience, will be published separately. The Dana Foundation has funded conference planning, organization, and logistics, including all expenses for speakers and the production and distribution of the summary publication. We request supplemental funding from NINDS and NIDA to support travel stipends for 65 individuals in order to assure the broadest possible attendance at the conference, particularly by junior scholars, minorities and women, who are often under-represented at scientific and bioethics conferences. Attendance is projected at 80 conferees (100 participants including speakers) in order to allow discussion. Following an introduction by the program chair, the conference will be divided into four main sessions: I. Brain Science and the Self. II. Brain Science and Social Policy. III. Ethics and the Practice of Brain Science. IV. Brain Science and Public Discourse. Sessions, chaired by members of the planning committee, will encourage interaction across disciplines. Questions to be addressed span theoretical (How will findings in brain science affect our understanding of free will?), clinical (Will stem cell transplants, drugs, or neuroprostheses transform personal identity?), and policy domain (If drug addiction is a brain disease, how should society and the legal system respond?).
