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A healthcare approach to mental integrity
  1. Abel Wajnerman-Paz1,
  2. Francisco Aboitiz2,
  3. Florencia Álamos3,
  4. Paulina Ramos Vergara4
  1. 1 Instituto de Éticas Aplicadas, Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile, Santiago, Chile
  2. 2 Centro Interdisciplinario de Neurociencia, Departamento de Psiquiatría, Facultad de Medicina, Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile, Santiago, Chile
  3. 3 Centro de Bioética, Facultad de Medicina, Centro Interdisciplinario de Neurociencia, Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile, Santiago, Chile
  4. 4 Centro de Bioética, Facultad de Medicina, Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile, Santiago, Chile
  1. Correspondence to Dr Abel Wajnerman-Paz; abelwajnerman{at}gmail.com

Abstract

The current human rights framework can shield people from many of the risks associated with neurotechnological applications. However, it has been argued that we need either to articulate new rights or reconceptualise existing ones in order to prevent some of these risks. In this paper, we would like to address the recent discussion about whether current reconceptualisations of the right to mental integrity identify an ethical dimension that is not covered by existing moral and/or legal rights. The main challenge of these proposals is that they make mental integrity indistinguishable from autonomy. They define mental integrity in terms of the control we can have over our mental states, which seems to be part of the authenticity condition for autonomous action. Based on a fairly comprehensive notion of mental health (ie, a notion that is not limited to the mere absence of illness), we propose an alternative view according to which mental integrity can be characterised both as a positive right to (medical and non-medical) interventions that restore and sustain mental and neural function, and promote its development and a negative right protecting people from interventions that threaten or undermine these functions or their development. We will argue that this notion is dissociated from cognitive control and therefore can be adequately distinguished from autonomy.

  • Mental Health
  • Ethics

Data availability statement

Data sharing not applicable as no datasets generated and/or analysed for this study.

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Data availability statement

Data sharing not applicable as no datasets generated and/or analysed for this study.

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Footnotes

  • X @AbelWajnerman

  • Contributors All authors contributed equally to the development of the manuscript. AWP is acting as a guarantor.

  • Funding This study was funded by Fondo Nacional de Desarrollo Científico y Tecnológico (Fondecyt Iniciación No 11220327).

  • Competing interests None declared.

  • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.

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