European governance activities on human cognitive
enhancement
Fourth Annual S.NET Conference, University of Twente, October 22-25, 2012
Christopher Coenen, Arianna Ferrari
Institute for Technology Assessment and Systems Analysis (ITAS)
KIT – University of the State of Baden-Wuerttemberg and
National Research Center of the Helmholtz Association
www.kit.edu
The EPOCH project
EPOCH – Ethics in Public Policy-Making: The Case of Human
Enhancement
http://epochproject.com/
EPOCH aims to broaden and deepen knowledge of the role of ethics in
the governance of science and technology, focusing on ethical aspects
of new and emerging bio-, neuro- and nano-technologies, specifically
those related to the topic of human enhancement. (Coordinator: Bristol)
EPOCH’s goal is to generate new insights into the role of ethical
expertise in European policy-making on science and technology,
coherent with national and other European projects.
- Ethics and Governance of Science and Technology (Bristol)
- Human Enhancement and European Policy-Making (Karlsruhe)
- Challenges to Regulatory and Legal Frameworks (Padua)
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24-10-2012
Christopher Coenen , Arianna Ferrari
European governance activities on human cognitive enhancement
Institute for Technology Assessment and Systems
Analysis (ITAS)
Research activities: EPOCH project, Area 2
Report on the state-of-the art in scientific and technological fields
relevant for human enhancement (Karlsruhe)
Report on human enhancement and Ethics - Structured overview on
the state-of-the-art academic debate (Aarhus)
Report on EU and international governance activities on human
enhancement (Karlsruhe)
Report of the Workshop “The Governance and Ethics of Human
Enhancement” (Karlsruhe)
Report on ethical analysis in policies and governance of human
enhancement (Karlsruhe)
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24-0102012
Christopher Coenen , Arianna Ferrari
European governance activities on human cognitive enhancement
Institute for Technology Assessment and Systems
Analysis (ITAS)
Human enhancement
any modification aimed at improving individual human performance and
brought about by science-based or technology-based interventions in the
human body
(i) restorative or preventive, non-enhancing interventions, (ii) therapeutic
enhancements, and (iii) non-therapeutic enhancements.
human enhancement primarily as one specific perspective on developments
in science, technology, medicine and society.
(1) strong, “second-stage” [G. Khushf] forms of human enhancement with
long-term effective or permanent results (e.g., genetic enhancements and
invasive brain-computer interfaces) and (2) temporary enhancements (e.g.
alleged ”pharmacological cognitive enhancers”).
Non-therapeutic enhancements are at the focus because they are at the
centre of the ethical and emerging political debate on human enhancement.
EPOCH focus concerning governance activities: cognitive enhancement
However, viewed anthropologically, second-stage enhancements, whether
therapeutic or non-therapeutic, constitute the greatest challenge and deserve
particular attention even if they often are highly speculative.
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24-0102012
Christopher Coenen , Arianna Ferrari
European governance activities on human cognitive enhancement
Institute for Technology Assessment and Systems
Analysis (ITAS)
Pharmacological cognitive enhancement (PCE)
Major problems in assessing the current state‐of‐the‐art :
Lack of appropriate design of the studies
Lack of data on healthy subjects
Lack of understanding of neurobiology and the characteristics of
cognition‐related networks (and, consequently, of a standard
definition of cognitive enhancers)
Lack of an established definition of environmental and operational
stress
Very often there is a lack of studies into a substance’s effects when
repeatedly administered
Lack of studies of side‐effects, especially long‐term effects
Lack of studies of addiction potential
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24-10-2012
Christopher Coenen , Arianna Ferrari
European governance activities on human cognitive enhancement
Institute for Technology Assessment and Systems
Analysis (ITAS)
General conclusions for PCE
 There is no evidence in the literature that any substance can
enable a person to develop extraordinary (or superhuman)
capabilities.
 It is not clear whether some substances could lead to a person
to increase their particular cognitive ability beyond his/her own
optimal level (i.e. when not suffering stress, repetitive conditions
or sleep deprivation).
 There is a growing evidence that it is not scientifically sound to
speak of “cognitive enhancers” for healthy individuals: if a
substance can be proved to have an enhancing effect, this effect
is usually always on a particular property of cognition, and is
often differently interrelated with changes in other properties
(which can also be detrimental).
 Comparative studies of different substances have found that
each substance may produce different advantages (if any)
depending on the cognitive demands of the task.
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24-10-2012
Christopher Coenen , Arianna Ferrari
European governance activities on human cognitive enhancement
Institute for Technology Assessment and Systems
Analysis (ITAS)
Neurotechnological Cognitive Enhancement
(NCE) and Brain-Computer Interfaces
Implanted Neuro-Stimulation Technologies
Quite widely used in therapy and compensation (deep brain stimulation, DBS) and
often discussed in discourse on human enhancement and cyborgisation.
Brain-Computer Interfaces (Implanted and Body-External)
BCIs appear to herald radical transformations in human-machine interaction. While
body-external BCIs do not fall under our definition of human enhancement
technologies (HET), they are relevant in this context for various reasons: (a) in our
view, HET need to be discussed and assessed against the background of a
continuum which stretches from non-technical solutions via body-external, noninvasive technologies to HET; (b) BCIs have significant potential for improving
performance in human-machine interaction (e.g. silent speech)
Non-implanted neurostimulation technologies
Transcranial direct current stimulation (TDCS), transcranial magnetic stimulation
(TMS) and similar technologies are increasingly discussed as cognitive
enhancers.
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24-10-2012
Christopher Coenen , Arianna Ferrari
European governance activities on human cognitive enhancement
Institute for Technology Assessment and Systems
Analysis (ITAS)
General conclusions for NCE and BCIs
Academic discourse in this area is less developed than discourse on PCE.
Nevertheless, these technologies offer overall greater promise with regard to
cognitive enhancement than pharmacological means.
Some of the technologies most often discussed in this context (e.g. DBS) are
clearly therapeutic or assistive at the present time and can only compensate for
disadvantages to a minor extent. BCI technologies cannot be used for CE at all but
have the potential to significantly change and improve human-machine interaction,
for therapeutic as well as non-therapeutic purposes. Enhancing effects of bodyexternal brain stimulation technologies have only been transient improvements but
the emerging discourse on CE effects of TDCS, TMS etc. is relevant for broader
discourse on human enhancement.
Discourse on neurotechnologies and the related social practices are diverse and
influenced by groups that also play an important role in discourse on PCE (e.g.
military research funding agencies and libertarian, liberal and transhumanust
ethicists). They encompass (1) applications at the boundaries between medicine
and wellness (marketed outside the medical context) and between science and
pseudoscience or “esoteric” beliefs; (2) such diverse application areas as assistive
technologies, treatments of mental and physiological problems or illnesses, and
entertainment (e.g. computer games), and (3) uses for performance enhancement
in competitive settings (such as elite sports).
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24-10-2012
Christopher Coenen , Arianna Ferrari
European governance activities on human cognitive enhancement
Institute for Technology Assessment and Systems
Analysis (ITAS)
Trends relevant to the governance of PCE
Doubts around the social relevance of PCE: first empirical data go back to the
beginning of the 2000s mainly focused on MPH (Ritalin); still use among (mostly US)
students & academics. Studies reveal problems in representativeness of the sample, on
motives and on readiness for long term consumption. The study results vary dramatically
depending on whether lifetime-prevalence (at least once in their lifetime for non-medical
reasons) or last-year-prevalence is investigated. Studies of smaller, more specific groups
of people often show a much higher prevalence than broader, nationwide studies.
Therefore PCE is a group-specific phenomenon (Smith and Farah 2011).
Trend toward challenging the major assumptions around PCE: Early discourse
focused on ethical issues and future uses of as yet non-existent drugs and thus
contributed to what has been termed ‘speculative ethics’. While this speculative discourse
continues, scientists, psychiatrists, other medical experts, philosophers, social scientists,
science journalists, and researchers in the field of technology assessment have been
drawing attention to and taking issue with the problematic features of discourse on PCE.
In particular, questions around the effects of PCE in the real world (effects on the
knowledge of students & on occupational performance) remain not investigated.
BUT it would be disquieting were governance activities, including advice to
policy makers, to be based on very different scientific assessments of the
phenomenon. There would then be the risk that further discourse on PCE
would take place in parallel worlds. There is evidence that the trend in
academic discourse is also reflected in governance activities.
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24-10-2012
Christopher Coenen , Arianna Ferrari
European governance activities on human cognitive enhancement
Institute for Technology Assessment and Systems
Analysis (ITAS)
European governance activities on human
enhancement (I)
Focus on the core of human enhancement discourse (documents and activities
which explicitly refer to the notion of ‘enhancement’ or the respective terms in
other languages); focal countries in the analyses to be conducted within the
EPOCH project: in Europe: Croatia, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy,
Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Serbia, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland and the
United Kingdom, and in North America: Canada and the US (study by Gregor
Wolbring and colleagues of the Calgary EPOCH team)
‘Governance’ activities as we define them mainly include (1) (very rarely!)
policy activities in the narrow sense (such as parliamentary activities); (2)
activities of institutions that regularly give advice to policy makers; (3) activities
of publicly funded institutions or other public bodies that play an important role
within the science system (e.g. academies of science) or political system; (4) all
kinds of publicly funded ‘accompanying research’ activities which explicitly deal
with the topic of human enhancement and are conducted in such fields as
technology assessment (TA) studies and studies on ethical, legal and societal
aspects (ELSA) of relevant new and emerging technologies; and (5) publicly
funded ‘public dialogue’ activities. Other activities are only taken into account if
they involved core actors in the political system or science system
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24-10-2012
Christopher Coenen , Arianna Ferrari
European governance activities on human cognitive enhancement
Institute for Technology Assessment and Systems
Analysis (ITAS)
European governance activities on human
enhancement (II)
Marked differences between European countries. Three groups: (1) A large number
of activities or high-profile activities are taking place, combined with more or less
lively academic discourses on the topic; (2) Rare or non-existent governance
activities, but lively academic discourse; (3) Governance activities and academic
discussions are rare or non-existent
-> The first group of countries comprises Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands,
Norway, the United Kingdom and Switzerland, the second and third group
comprises Croatia, France, Italy, Poland, Serbia, Slovenia and Spain. The
differences appear to reflect more general differences between European countries
(e.g. concerning public participation in discourse on science and technology) and
they may also reflect religious and other cultural differences.
If we look at publications by policy advice institutions, it is interesting to note that
recommendations are often presented in the form of alternative routes of action tied
to specific ethico-political approaches or stances. This fact can be interpreted as a
further sign of the cultural diversity in Europe with regard to the enhancement issue.
This diversity is not restricted to differences between national cultures but also
encompasses cultural differences within countries. It also indicates that practices
and visions of human enhancement are raising challenges that are related to
unresolved questions in Europe’s common cultural history
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24-10-2012
Christopher Coenen , Arianna Ferrari
European governance activities on human cognitive enhancement
Institute for Technology Assessment and Systems
Analysis (ITAS)
Ethical analysis in European governance
activities on human enhancement (I)
Major problems connected with the lack of a universally accepted
definition of the term enhancement: Although the academic debate soon
recognised the impossibility of drawing a sharp line between therapeutic and
nontherapeutic interventions, since the terms of reference (illness and health)
are also not precisely defined and contain normative elements, this criterion
plays an important role in the governance of human enhancement
technologies. The majority of reports by institutions on this topic stick with this
distinction.
Human nature remains a central ethical issue in HE governance:
polarisation of positions in the academic debate
Anthropological aspects are also discussed in relation to societal
(possible) effects, e.g. changes in the health care system
Discussion on the role of intuitions (yuck effect, social relevance)
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24-10-2012
Christopher Coenen , Arianna FerrariThe Governance and Ethics of Human Enhancement
Institute for Technology Assessment and Systems
Analysis (ITAS)
Ethical analysis in European governance
activities on human enhancement (II)
Ethical pluralism as a major challenge: Although it is not explicitly addressed as
a theoretical problem in institutional reports, but is implicitly taken into
consideration in the formulation of policy recommendations
Trends in policy recommendations
- In some cases, policy recommendations opt clearly for a particular type of regulation.
- In other cases, the presence of different ethical views is openly declared and different
governance frameworks (or different recommendations) are formulated.
- In other cases, some reports list different ethical arguments, acknowledge the possibility
of different regulatory frameworks and conclude with open questions which should be
addressed in order to clarify political decisions.
Visionary elements are mentioned
-
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visions of increasing human performance by technological means are seen as a possible
future scenario and analysed by means of foresight.
Although a lack of evidence of efficacy or a lack of empirical studies of certain effects of
some technologies is stated, the discussion of the ethical issues as well as the
formulation of governance recommendations is framed by the idea that these
technologies will be developed sooner or later and will thus become a concrete and
urgent issue needing to be faced
24-10-2012
Christopher Coenen , Arianna Ferrari
European governance activities on human cognitive enhancement
Institute for Technology Assessment and Systems
Analysis (ITAS)
Thank you very much for your attention!
http://epochproject.com/
[email protected]
[email protected]
Ferrari A., Grunwald A., Coenen C. (2012): Visions and Ethics in Current Ethical Discourse
on Human Enhancement, NanoEthics 7 (Special Issue on S.NET 2011), online first
Mali, F., Pustovrh, T., Groboljsek, B., Coenen, C. (2012): National Ethics Advisory Bodies in
the Emerging Landscape of Responsible Research and Innovation, NanoEthics 7, online first
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24-0102012
Christopher Coenen , Arianna Ferrari
European governance activities on human cognitive enhancement
Institute for Technology Assessment and Systems
Analysis (ITAS)