Monday, November 3, 2008

W11T1 What Can We Do to Minimize the Abuses of Brain Mapping

W11T1 What Can We Do to Minimize the Abuses of Brain Mapping

Have you ever imagined that the mind readers, which only existed in science fictions, could be existing in the real world one day? Maybe brain mapping can make this dream come true in the future. Brain mapping is a set of neuroscience techniques predicated on the mapping of (biological) quantities or properties onto spatial representations of the (human or non-human) brain resulting in maps. However every coin has two sides, brain mapping also has its positive and negative effects on society. National Science Foundation has reported that he positive effect of brain mapping is that could applied in the study of the autism, disorders of thoughts such as paranoid schizophrenia, and semantic dementias such as Pick’s disease in the future(May, 2008). Conversely, if the work of the brain mapping is abused, the negative effects of brain mapping are very serious. It will cause a lot of ethical problems, such as the privacy right of citizens will be violated. Hence, what can we do to minimize the unethical abuses of brain mapping.  
In my view, the authority should strengthen the control of the use of brain mapping firstly. The authority and the related experts should take the responsibility to supervise the proper use of brain mapping. They can make the restricted rules to regulate the use of brain mapping. For example, they can make a rule saying that before using brain mapping, people or organizations should get the permission from the authority. Secondly, the experts can do more research on brain mapping to make this technology becomes more and more accurate. The increasing accuracy of the technology can lead to less errors and minimize the harm caused by the abuse of brain mapping. Finally, citizens should strengthen their legal sense. They should protect their privacy right by laws. 
In conclusion, we should be careful to apply brain mapping to daily life, because it is easy to cause a lot of ethical problems. Experts and the authority should be responsible to the use of brain mapping, and trying their best to minimize the abuse of brain mapping.


Reference:
National Science Foundation. ( 2008, May 30). A computer that can ‘read’ your mind [Press release 08-091]. Retrieved August6, 2008, from