Neuroética en México: Reflexiones médicas, legales y socioculturales

Abstract

Current neuroscience and neurotechnology have led to an increased insight in putative mechanisms involved in emotions, behaviours, thoughts, and in moral decision-making. Concerns arise on the possible misuse and/or overuse of these tools, as well as brain manipulation. Neuroethics is the discipline dedicated to study these issues. Neuroethics in Mexico is in a nascent stage, and this prompts caveats due to issues that have not been reported in the international literature, such as medical factors (e.g. pre-Hispanic medicine), legal factors (e.g. ambiguity in neuroscientific and neurotechnological frameworks), and socio-cultural factors (e.g. ethnography and the mix of western and pre-Hispanic philosophies). Hence reflection is needed in order to (a) focus on the best interests of the patients within a Mexican culture context, and (b) foster a global neuroethics, taking into account neurocognitive cultural diversity within a framework of ethnographic respect.