Mental Augmentation, Human Rights, and the Future of Choice
摘要
This chapter emphasizes the role of international human rights law in guiding the integration of mental augmentation into clinical practice. Mental augmentation refers broadly to efforts aimed at improving human cognition and behavior through direct recording and manipulation of neural activity. Utilizing neurotechnologies, mental augmentation increasingly involves interventions aimed at enhancing cognitive and emotional functioning such as memory, attention, sensation, and problem-solving beyond innate capabilities. The chapter reviews relevant treaties, such as the Convention on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), and the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), which stress the importance of empowering individuals to meaningfully exercise their rights. The analysis grants special focus to the implications for persons in vulnerable situations, including persons with disabilities and children, whose evolving decision-making capacities require robust safeguards and ongoing interdisciplinary dialogue. The commentary calls for ethical, legal, and regulatory frameworks that ensure that mental augmentation technologies support decision-making while upholding human rights.