Neuroethics and Cultural Diversity

Book excerpt: There is a growing discussion concerning the relationship between neuroethical reflections and cultural diversity, which is among the most impactful factors in shaping neuroethics, both as a scientific discipline and a social enterprise. The impacts of culture on science and its public perception are particularly relevant to neuroethics, which aims to facilitate the creation of an interface between neuroscience and society at large. Time is ripe for neuroethics to review the influence of the culturally specific contexts from which it originated (i.e. North America and Western Europe) and to also include other cultural perspectives in the discussion. This book illustrates a convergent approach among different cultures in identifying the main issues raised by neuroscience and emerging technologies. This should be taken as a starting point for advancing in the search for shared solutions, which are, if not definitive, at least sufficiently reliable to be translated into democratic deliberative processes.