Neurotechnology: Regulatory issues between health and “enhancement”

Neurotechnologies are powerful technologies that belong to a rapidly growing economic sector. Their use in the medical field is already well established, and companies are now pushing into the so-called “enhancement” sector in particular. “Neuroenhancement” should be understood here as the use of neurotechnology on healthy people for the sole purpose of self-improvement. The boundaries between medical-therapeutic purposes and enhancement are fluid because neurotechnologies are proving to be particularly transgressive technologies with transformative social consequences. Since the moral, ethical, and legal foundations change when crossing the boundary from the medical-therapeutic to the enhancement field, the plausible categorical distinction between the two areas is of particular importance. This article presents a proposal for a practical distinction, developed through interdisciplinary collaboration, for discussion.

Austrian Law Journal, 12(1)