Abstract
Among the types of human enhancement available in the near future, moral bioenhancement is perhaps one of the most controversial. Recent advances in neuroscience have allowed the alteration and manipulation of human behavior by means of neurotechnologies and psychopharmacology (Ferrucci & Priori 2014; Fregni et al. 2006; Nitsche et al. 2009). The ability to intervene in the brain, however, raises concerns as these various procedures affect core features of human identity including sense of self and individual morality. The history of psychiatry is filled with examples of procedures (such as lobotomies and electroconvulsive therapy [ECT]) once thought to benefit patients suffering from mental disorders. Ultimately, these procedures were deemed harmful. (Shutts1982). Hence, the specter of a broad social acceptance of brain interventions to alter or control human behavior could trigger memories of the darker historical episodes of psychiatry. […]