Neuroethics Program of the Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics (in conjunction with the Brain Sciences Institute)
The Program in Ethics and Brain Sciences (PEBS), founded in July 2003, represents the first formal collaboration between the Brain Sciences Institute and the Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics, both at Johns Hopkins. The goal of this program is to ensure that research in brain science proceeds with an informed and sophisticated understanding of attendant ethical and social issues, and that philosophical and empirical analysis of the advances in brain research proceeds with an informed and sophisticated understanding of the science.
Currently, the Program in Ethics and Brain Sciences is focusing on three concepts that are critical to understanding the moral dimensions of scientific advances in the clinical management of disease and injury to the brain - personal identity, moral responsibility and free will, and the meaning of the neural basis of morality. The Program has recently received funding to bring together the best minds in neurology and philosophy to discuss the first of these concepts, that of personal identity. This exchange will result in an edited volume that will bring together various philosophical theories of personality with clinical insight into the feasibility of these theories.
The Program in Ethics and Brain Sciences is an interdisciplinary endeavor, both in subject and in membership. During the regularly scheduled faculty meetings, the discussion ranges from moral philosophy to novel therapeutic approaches to disease and from public policy to basic science.
Berman Institute Hosts Conference to Discuss Ethics of Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS)
Baltimore - The Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics hosted a consensus conference September 26-27, 2007 for academic experts to discuss the scientific and ethical issues associated with the use of Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) for disorders of mood, thought and behavior. DBS is currently approved to treat certain movement disorders; increasing examples of the treatment for other indications also involve the implantation of electrodes in the brain. The consensus conference primarily focused on the scientific and ethical issues raised by the expanded use of DBS, particularly for psychiatric diagnoses. The small forum of approximately 20 experts in the science and ethics behind the design of such trials met to:
1. Establish consensus among researchers about the design of clinical trials of DBS for disorders of mood, thought and behavior, including inclusion/exclusion criteria and whether randomized, controlled trials should be required;
2. Develop standards for the protection of human subjects who participate in such studies, given their potentially diminished capacity to provide valid informed consent.
Statements developed by the group are being crafted into a conference report now. The report will be submitted for publication in the academic literature. Once available, statements and follow-up information will be listed on this Web site. For more information, contactAlan Regenberg or Kiran Khaira.
Program in Ethics and Brain Science Faculty and Staff Members
Program Co-Directors
Hilary Bok, Ph.D.
Henry R. Luce Professor of Bioethics and Moral and Political Theory, Department of Philosophy; Core Faculty, Berman Institute
Peter V. Rabins, M.D., M.P.H.
Professor, Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences; Director, Geriatric Psychiatry; Core Faculty, Berman Institute
Members
Debra Mathews, Ph.D., M.A.
Assistant Director For Science Programs, Berman Institute
Kiran Khaira, M.A.
Senior Research Program Coordinator, Berman Institute
Alan Regenberg, M.Be.
Senior Research Program Coordinator, Berman Institute
Marilyn Albert, Ph.D.
Professor, Neurology and Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences; Director, Division of Cognitive Neurosciences
Brian S. Appleby, M.D
Fellow, Geriatric Psychiatry
Ted M. Dawson, M.D. Ph.D.
Professor, Neurology and Neuroscience
J. Raymond DePaulo, M.D.
Henry Phipps Professor of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences; Director and Psychiatrist-in-Chief, Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences
Ruth R. Faden, Ph.D., M.P.H.
Philip Franklin Wagley Professor of Biomedical Ethics; Professor, Health Policy & Management; Executive Director, Berman Institute
John Freeman, M.D.
Professor, Neurology and Pediatrics; Director, Pediatric Epilepsy Center; Core Faculty, Berman Institute
Michela Gallagher, Ph.D.
Krieger-Eisenhower Professor, Professor, Psychology and Neuroscience; Chair, Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences;
Gail Geller, Sc.D.
Associate Professor, Pediatrics and Health Policy & Management; Core Faculty, Berman Institute
John W. Griffin, M.D.
Professor, Neurology, Neuroscience, and Pathology; Director and Neurologist-in-Chief, Department of Neurology.
Kay Jamison, Ph.D.
Professor, Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences
Richard Johnson, M.D.
Professor, Neurology, Molecular Biology & Genetics, and Neuroscience
Paul McHugh, M.D.
Henry Phipps Professor of Psychiatry; Chair Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Professor of Mental Hygiene
Guy M. McKhann, M.D.
Professor, Neurology; Professor, Neuroscience, Director Zanvyl Krieger Mind-Brain Institute
Christopher A. Ross, M.D, Ph.D.
Professor, Psychiatry; Professor, Neurology; Professor, Neuroscience; Director, Division of Neurobiology,
Andrew Siegel, J.D., Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology; Assistant Scientist, Health Policy and Management; Core Faculty, Berman Institute
Affiliate Members
Solomon Snyder, M.D., D.Sc., D.Phil.
Professor, Neuroscience, Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences, and Pharmacology & Molecular Sciences; Director, Department of Neuroscience
Meredith Williams, Ph.D.
Professor, Philosophy
Contact:
Kiran Khaira, M.A. Senior Research Program Coordinator 100 N Charles St, Suite 740 Baltimore, MD 21201 P: 410-516-8576 , F:410-516-8504 kkhaira@jhsph.edu
Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics
| 100 North Charles, Suite 740
Baltimore, MD 21201 |
Office: 410-516-8500 |
Fax: 410-516-8504
