https://doi.org/10.4081/mem.2011.172

Neuroscienze e neuroetica: riflessioni scientifiche e correlati bioetici

Vol. 60 No. 2 (2011)
Published: April 30, 2011
Neuroscienze, neuroetica, neuroimaging / Neurosciences, neuroethics, neuroimaging
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Authors

Massimo Gandolfini
gandolfini-massimo@poliambulanza.it
Specialista in Neurochirurgia, Neurologia e Psichiatria, Direttore Dipartimento Neuroscienze e Primario U.O. Neurochirurgia - Fondazione Poliambulanza, Brescia, Italy.
Adelaide Conti
Professore Associato di Medicina Legale, Centro di Studio e di Ricerca di Bioetica dell'Università degli Studi di Brescia, Italy.
Le nuove tecnologie di neuroimaging, che rientrano nel grande campo delle neuroscienze, ci consentono di indagare lo studio della funzionalità cerebrale nel momento in cui eseguiamo un dato compito o elaboriamo un pensiero. Oltre allo studio degli stati post-coma, si è così aperto il grande capitolo delle cosiddette "neuroscienze cognitive", cioè lo studio delle funzioni simboliche superiori che caratterizzano la persona umana. Siamo oggi in grado di mappare le aree cerebrali che sono coinvolte nella memoria, nelle percezioni e nelle emozioni, nell'elaborazioni del processo decisionale, fino a giungere alla condotta etica. L'indubbio grande valore scientifico di queste ricerche trascina con sè il rischio di una pericolosa "invasione di campo", in argomenti di portata etica che spettano ad altre discipline, dalla filosofia all'antropologia, dalla teologia alla psicologia. La tentazione di ridurre la complessità della persona umana ad una "macchina" neurologicamente predeterminata, con un'architettura neuronale costruita sull'impianto genico non modificabile, porta con sè il pesante ridimensionamento (o l'abolizione) di grandi istanze etiche, quali la libera scelta e la responsabilità. Ne è nata una nuova disciplina, la neuroetica, che si prefigge di leggere l'uomo, nella sua individualità e globalità, alla luce della neurobiologia documentata dalle neuroscienze. Nella realtà, proprio partendo dai dati scientifici, genetici e neurologici, possiamo rigorosamente dimostrare ed affermare che questa impostazione è riduttiva, limitata, lacunosa e, quindi, oggettivamente inaccettabile. Si richiede la fondazione di un'etica delle neuroscienze, piuttosto che l'attuale deriva delle neuroscienze dell'etica.
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The new neuroimaging technology allows us to investigate the study of brain function at the moment in which a specific task is executed or a thought is elaborated. In this way, the vast chapter on the so called "cognitive neurosciences" has been opened. Today we are able to map the areas of the brain involved in memory, perception and emotions, in the elaboration of the decisional process, all the way to ethical conduct. The temptation to reduce the complexity of humans to a neurologically predetermined "machine" with an unalterable genetic structure built with a neuronal architecture carries with it a heavy downsizing (or abolition) of important ethical issues, such as freedom of choice and personal responsibility. In reality, starting precisely from scientific, genetic and neurological data, we can state and rigorously demonstrate that this formulation is reductive, limited and faulty and therefore unacceptable objectively. We request the formulation of an ethics for neurosciences rather than the existing neurosciences of ethics into which we have draft.

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How to Cite

Gandolfini, M., & Conti, A. (2011). Neuroscienze e neuroetica: riflessioni scientifiche e correlati bioetici. Medicina E Morale, 60(2). https://doi.org/10.4081/mem.2011.172

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