UNESCO Drafts Recommendations on Neurotech Ethics

Image: UNESCO

An ad hoc group of 24 experts convened by UNESCO has gathered to devise recommendations on the ethics of neurotechnology.

The first draft of the recommendations document is available via the UNESCO website.

Listed among the objectives of the document is “to provide a universal framework of values,  principles and actions to guide Member States in the formulation of national legislation, policies or other instruments regarding neurotechnology, consistent with international standards”.

Consultations with a range of stakeholders are underway around the world by UNESCO to ensure a variety of perspectives are captured in the final report.

A second group meeting will be held in late August to collate the outcomes of the consultation process, with a first draft of the standard-setting instrument due to be shared with Member States by September.

The intergovernmental consultation process will then take place until 2025.

The activity follows a 2021 report from UNESCO’s International Bioethics Committee, Ethical Issues of Neurotechnology, which posited that the five main ethical challenges posed by neurotech centred around cerebral/mental integrity and human dignity; personal integrity and psychological continuity; autonomy; mental privacy; and accessibility and social justice.

Refer to the first draft of the recommendations document via UNESCO for more information.