Brain Recording, Mind-Reading, and Neurotechnology: Ethical Issues from Consumer Devices to Brain-Based Speech Decoding.

Brain reading technologies are rapidly being developed in a number of neuroscience fields. These technologies can record, process, and decode neural signals. This has been described as 'mind reading technology' in some instances, especially in popular media.

[The contribution of an ethical concertation group in nephrology validated by a research protocol].

For more than 10 years, nephrologists in the Grenoble-region have sought advice from the Ethical Concertation Unit in Nephrology with regards to whether to stop or continue dialysis for patients under palliative care. This process deserves a multidisciplinary debate between health professionals and qualified non-health professionals. Thus, we organized a qualitative research protocol in three parts (medical, philosophical, judicial) to explore this issue.

Neuroprosthetic Speech: The Ethical Significance of Accuracy, Control and Pragmatics.

Neuroprosthetic speech devices are an emerging technology that can offer the possibility of communication to those who are unable to speak. Patients with 'locked in syndrome,' aphasia, or other such pathologies can use covert speech-vividly imagining saying something without actual vocalization-to trigger neural controlled systems capable of synthesizing the speech they would have spoken, but for their impairment.We provide an analysis of the mechanisms and outputs involved in speech mediated by neuroprosthetic devices.

Breaking Bad News about Cancer to Adolescents and Young Adults: The French Experience.

The announcement of a serious illness, like cancer, can be very stressful for adolescents and young adults, as well as for their parents. In view of this difficulty, the protection of patients' dignity and autonomy is a central concern of medical ethics. It was with this goal in mind that a French Announcement protocol was developed following the First French Convention for Cancer Patients (1998) and reaffirmed, in 2010, by the First French Convention for Child Cancer Patients and Their Families.