Abstract

PAUTASSI GROSSO, Jorge Sebastián. FROM BIOETHICS TO NEURO-ETHICS: NEURO-ETHICS OR PERSON- ETHICS?. rev.latinoam.bioet. [online]. 2013, vol.13, n.2, pp.48-59. ISSN 1657-4702.

There is a continuity from ethics to bioethics and to the neuro-ethics as this, using the latest technologies, shows the neurological bases that enable human moral dimension. This article shows how human biological nature enables judgment and moral behavior. We present the neurological basis of moral judgment specifying the functions of prefrontal cortex in relation to social knowledge and ethical judgments in complex plot not only with the cortex and the brain but with the totality of the human person and his environment. We pass later to study the evolution of consciousness in general and moral consciousness from neuroscience, social influence and personal choices of the moral subject. It affirms life as primary biological value from the body-brain in complex interrelationship with psychic and spiritual life, i.e., holistic life as the supreme value of ethics. We conclude that it is not enough to study the neurological aspects but the whole human being to deal with what we have called the person-ethics. We have a biological nature which enables the judgment and moral behavior. The natural biological needs cultural, i.e., an educational structure, for moral progress is the responsibility of every person and of society in shaping brain epigenetics.

Keywords : Evolution; complexity; bioethics; neuro-ethics; person-ethics.

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