Evaluating Ethical Frameworks for the Assessment of Human Cognitive Enhancement Applications

Ellen-Marie Forsberg is a senior researcher with a PhD in applied ethics on methods for ethical assessment of genetically modified food. Her research interests include assessment of emerging science and technology, responsible research and innovation and applied ethics in different innovation areas. Forsberg has been the project leader of several larger Norwegian and European research projects and is the head of research at the Work Research Institute at Oslo and Akershus University College.  Clare Shelley-Egan is a senior researcher with a PhD in Science and Technology Studies. Her research interests include ethics and governance of new and emerging technologies, technology assessment and regulation of new technologies. Her subject areas include responsible research and innovation, applied ethics, research ethics, research and innovation policy, nanoscience and nanotechnology, nanoethics and regulation of nanotechnologies. Erik Thorstensen has an MA in history of religions, worked in the area of bioethics in the Norwegian National Research Ethics Committees and with history culture and didactics at the Center for Studies of the Holocaust and Religious Minorities. His current interests include ambient assisted living technologies and responsible innovation; histories of technologies; and assessment of technologies.  Laurens LandeweerdLaurens Landeweerd is a senior researcher who also holds a position as assistant professor at Radboud University Nijmegen’s  Institute for Science Innovation and Society. His research areas  include human enhancement, problems of justification in philosophy, ELSA/RRI  and theory of ethics. He is interested in the area of social, philosophical and ethical  issues in biotechnology innovation, more specifically the relation  between science and technology, the status of knowledge, the  acceptability and justification of specific innovation trajectories  (in both medical and industrial biotechnology).Bjørn HoffmanBjørn Hofmann is a professor at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology at Gjøvik and an adjunct professor at the Centre for medical ethics at the University of Oslo. He holds a PhD in philosophy of medicine and is trained both in the natural sciences and in the humanities. His main research interests are philosophy of medicine, philosophy of science, technology assessment, and bioethics. Hofmann teaches ethics, philosophy of science, and philosophy of medicine, at the levels Ba, Ma, and PhD.

• Introduction.- Ethical tools as vehicles for practical, ethical dialogue.- Ethical concerns: cognitive enhancing drugs and noninvasive brain stimulation.- Methodology.- Cognitive enhancing drugs.- Risk and efficacy.- Authenticity and naturalness.- Fairness and personal achievement.- Distributive justice.- Coercion.- Noninvasive brain stimulation.- Ethical issues specific to transcranial direct current stimulation.- Further arguments in favour of cognitive enhancement.- Frameworks relevant for assessing HCE applications.- Principle based ethics.- The ethical matrix.- The ETICA framework.- Anticipatory ethics for emerging technologies.- Ethical Technology Assessment.- Ethical Constructive Technology Assessment.- Ethical Impact Assessment.- The adequacy of the frameworks for ethical assessment of HCE applications.- Principle based ethics.- The ethical matrix.- The ETICA framework.- Anticipatory ethics for emerging technologies.- Ethical Technology Assessment.- Ethical Constructive Technology Assessment.- Ethical Impact Assessment.- Summary.- Some final reflections.- Conclusion.- Acknowledgements.- References.