Deep Brain Stimulation, Neuroethics, and The Revision of the MHA

Sowerby Philosophy & Medicine Project, King's College London

Join us for the final colloquium in our series on Philosophy and the Mental Health Act!

King's College London

Join us on the 12th of May to hear Dr Jonathan Pugh from the University of Oxford speak on "Deep Brain Stimulation, Neuroethics, and The Revision of the Mental Health Act"!This will be the final colloquium in our series on Philosophy and the Mental Health Act. There will be an option to attend this event either in person or online via Zoom. The exact starting time and the location of the event will be updated closer to the event. Abstract: "Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) is a neurosurgical intervention that is increasingly being considered as an experimental treatment for a range of intractable psychiatric disorders. In this talk, I will explain why this intervention is not adequately regulated under the current version of the Mental Health Act, and consider the Independent Review’s proposals for rectifying this. I will ultimately argue in favour of the spirit of the review’s recommendations, but I will suggest that Deep Brain Stimulation may warrant its own specific set of provisions, separate to those that might govern the use of other neuro-interventions. In order to make this argument, I will first outline the history of different forms of neurosurgical interventions in psychiatry, and how they are regulated in different jurisdictions. I will then identify some key ethical differences between DBS and other neuro-interventions that might be deployed in Psychiatry, with a particular focus on the reversibility of the intervention, its potential psycho-social effects, and their implications for our understanding of patient well-being, autonomy and decision-making capacity over time."About the speaker: "Jonathan Pugh is a Parfit-Radcliffe Richards Senior Research Fellow and Manager of Visitors Programmes for the Oxford Uehiro Centre, University of Oxford. He recently led a Wellcome Trust funded project entitled "The Ethics of Novel Therapeutic Applications of Deep Brain Stimulation". His research interests lie primarily in issues concerning personal autonomy in practical ethics, particularly topics pertaining to informed consent. He has also written on the ethics of human embryonic stem cell research, criminal justice, human enhancement, and gene-editing."

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