Neurorights: what are they, types, and legal implications?

Let's see what neurorights are, what issues they focus on, and how they influence society.

The evolution of neuroscience is unstoppable, as is the parallel evolution of neurotechnology. It is only a matter of a few decades before electronic devices capable of decoding information from our brains and penetrating into the depths of our minds are invented.

The use of technology capable of such power is a double-edged sword because, although it will mean great advances in fields such as criminology, discovering whether a suspect is the perpetrator of a crime, it also raises serious ethical questions such as being able to modify our memories or manipulate our decision-making.

It is for this reason that many neuroscientists have been warning in recent years about the need to establish ethical limits in the use of technology capable of influencing our minds, what has come to be known as neurorights.. Next we are going to see what they are and their great importance.

What are neurorights and why are they important?

Advances in neuroscience, disciplines that study the functioning of the brain and seek the Biological foundations of human behavior, have led to some concern about the use that could be made of the technologies that benefit from their findings. Neurotechnology, combined with artificial intelligence, has the potential to influence society in profound ways, according to neuro-rights activists, a very dangerous tool if used irresponsibly and for commercial purposes.

As a product of this concern, neurorights have emerged, a new international human rights legal framework focused on protecting the human brain and its individuality from irresponsible use of new technologies.. Although it may sound like science fiction, we are getting closer and closer to knowing through an X-ray or electrodes what a person thinks, feels, believes and thinks, an extremely dangerous possibility if it falls into the wrong hands, which is why these neurotechnological rights are so necessary.

Project BRAIN and NeuroRights Initiative

One of the projects that is making the most progress in brain mapping and the analysis of behavior and its neurological foundations is BRAIN INITIATIVE (Brain Research Through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies), based in the United States. the BRAIN INITIATIVE (Brain Research Through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies), based in the United States.. This project was initiated by former U.S. President Barack Obama in 2013, endowing it with a budget of about 4.5 billion dollars.

At the time, it already caused quite a stir, as it was a powerful program to track mental activity in detail by developing tools with which to know what a person thinks or feels based on his or her traceable neurological activity. Its aim was, in fact, to take a dynamic picture of the brain in action and better understand how we think, learn and remember.

After a few years, the discoveries made by those involved in this project and the information that has been collected is so great and valuable that even the neuroscientists themselves warn of the great need to establish a series of universal rights that guarantee the protection of individuality and mental privacy. If internationally valid neuro-rights are not approved, there is a risk that neurotechnologies will be very badly misused..

One of the advocates of the need to establish these human rights is the Spanish neurobiologist Rafael Yuste, director of the Center for Neurotechnology at Columbia University (USA). Yuste is one of the main promoters of the BRAIN project, but also of the defense of neurorights and therefore also leads the NeuroRights Initiative, which is in fact focused on this task.

Neuroscientists are human beings well aware of the ethical implications of their advances, which is why they are the first to want neuro-rights to be recognized at the international level. Their neuroscientific advances aim to improve people's lives by discovering what lies behind diseases and disorders in the brain such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, epilepsy, depression, anxiety or schizophrenia. Knowing how they occur in the brain will make it possible to find a definitive cure..

But knowledge of the brain can also lead to interests that go beyond improving the quality of life of those suffering from neurological diseases. Companies could use the most sophisticated neuroscience to manipulate individuals and, by changing their desires and interests by entering their minds, make them buy their products. It can also be a tool used by corrupt governments and totalitarian regimes, interested in identifying citizens who do not agree with their ideas by violating their mental privacy and arresting them for having certain thoughts.

What are neuro-rights?

Considering the ethical implications and potential risks involved in advances in neuroscience, neuroscientists and human rights activists alike are demanding that major agencies include five fundamental neurorights.

In fact, they are campaigning for these rights to be included in the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights because, if this were achieved, it would have a real link, obliging governments, authorities, the private sector and citizens to respect them, regardless of the country in which they are located.

For the time being, the five fundamental neuro-rights proposed are as follows.

1. Right to personal identity

The right to personal identity calls for the imposition of limits that prohibit technologies from altering one's sense of self.. This right seeks to protect the individuality and personal autonomy of individuals because, when neurotechnology can connect people to social networks, there is a risk of blurring the line between a person's consciousness and external technological inputs.

2. Right to free will

The right to free will guarantees that people can make decisions freely, of their own free will and without being manipulated by technology.. This right foresees the possibility that, if our brain is connected through brain activity readers to a computer, it will not be free to make decisions or it could even be the case that someone invades our brain, hacking our mind.

• Related article, "Is there such a thing as free will?"

3. Right to mental privacy

The neuroright to mental privacy aims to prevent any data obtained from the analysis and measurement of neural activity from being used without the individual's consent.. Added to this, it demands the strict regulation of any interaction and transaction of commercial use of this data.

4. Right to equal access to neurocognition.

Behind this neuroright, what is requested is the determination of guidelines and directives that delimit and regulate the application of any technology that allows the enhancement of brain activity. The aim of this right is to ensure that this cognitive enhancement is accessible to everyone, in an equitable manner, and that it is not left to the individual.The objective of this right is to ensure that this cognitive enhancement is accessible to everyone, in an equitable manner, and that it is not reserved for a small, favored and wealthy sector of society.

5. Right to protection against bias and discrimination

This right requests that the knowledge of neuroscience does not establish discriminations and distinctions by race, ethnicity, ethnicity, race, ethnicity, ethnicity, ethnicity, ethnicity, ethnicity distinctions based on race, ethnicity, sex, sexual orientation, creed, political opinion, national or social origin, birth, economic status, or any other condition. or any other condition.

Activism and legislation for the protection of our mind

The community of neuroscientists sensitive to neuro-rights seeks to ensure that our minds are not manipulated and that our privacy is respected. Our thoughts, opinions, beliefs, emotions and other aspects of our minds that are hidden from the public eye should remain hidden, even if technologies are developed to bring them out even if technologies are developed that can bring them out with a mere X-ray, electrodes or neuroimaging.

The aim is that all neuroscientific advances should be directed towards achieving a better society, for the common good, and should not lead to situations of greater inequalities or social crises.

With the recognized neuro-rights, the work of decoding neural networks would make it necessary to take into account the ethical and legal component of research with the brain.As neuroscience unravels the mysteries of the brain, the confidentiality and protection of data found in the mind must be guaranteed.

As neuroscience unravels the mysteries of the brain, the confidentiality and protection of data found in the mind must be guaranteed. The aim would be to prevent the information available about our brain from being used for purposes outside the general interest.

For the time being, one of the countries that has made the most progress in the field of neuro-rights is Chile, which has presented a bill to reform the law on neuro-rights.Chile, which presented a bill to reform the Constitution to recognize these rights, becoming the first state to approve specific legislation for this purpose.

In the European Union, important steps have also been taken, announcing in 2019 the creation of a committee on Artificial Intelligence. and that it is exploring the feasibility of a legal framework on transparency, accountability and security, managed by the European Human Rights Council.