Providence and Neuroethics

This chapter introduces the relatively new field of neuroethics, which is concerned with theoretical and practical ethical questions raised by neuroscience and neurotechnology. The chapter discusses a selection of topics in the “neuroscience of ethics” (questions for our understanding of ethics raised by neuroscientific research) and the “ethics of neuroscience” (ethical questions about the practice of neuroscience). The former include questions about free will, agency, and moral judgment; the latter include the ethics of neuroscientific mind-reading and the treatment of patients with diagnoses of permanent vegetative state. Some likely areas of future development are surveyed, including calls for neuroethics to broaden its scope, paying more attention to global perspectives and questions of social justice. Although Christian engagement with neuroethics has hitherto been limited, the chapter is an attempt to show that neuroethical issues are of great interest and concern to Christian ethics, and theological ethicists have much to offer by way of analysis, critique, and reframing of neuroethical debates.