Hastings Center News

Neuroscience and Society Series to Launch

The Hastings Center Report will launch a series of open-access articles and essays on the ethical, legal, and social implications of new findings in neuroscience. The series, supported by the Dana Foundation, will foster dynamic, sustained conversation among neuroscience researchers and legal and ethics scholars with one another, policymakers, and wider publics.

Building on existing neuroethics research while also drawing in new perspectives, with a structured process that is adaptable to new developments and insights as they arise, it aims to support the iterative, incremental development of a body of work that helps fulfill the goals laid out in the BRAIN Neuroethics Subgroup’s 2019 “roadmap” of informing neuroscientists about the ethical implications of their work, informing ethicists of trends and developments in neuroscience, and engaging the public about neuroethics—ensuring that neuroscience informs and reflects society.

Six open access articles or essays will be published each year for three years in the Series, with additional discussion of the series on the Hastings web site and in its newsletter and blog. Development of the Series will be led by three scholars at Hastings: Gregory E. Kaebnick, who has worked extensively on the ethics of emerging technologies and is editor of the Hastings Center Report, will serve as series editor. Erik Parens, a senior research scholar who has written about how technologies intersect with human nature and influence human flourishing, will assist with planning and review of manuscripts. Liz Bowen, a postdoctoral fellow, disabilities studies scholar, and assistant editor at Public Books, will assist in all stages.

The Hastings team will collaborate with a steering committee of neuroscientists and scholars in neuroethics to develop and revise editorial plans—articulating topics, identifying potential authors, developing editorial strategies to ensure the desired focus, breadth, and flexibility in the series, and assisting Hastings in soliciting and reviewing submissions to the series.

The Dana Foundation is a private philanthropic organization based in New York dedicated to advancing neuroscience and society by supporting cross-disciplinary intersections such as neuroscience, law, policy, humanities, and arts.