SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
A brain surgeon begins an anterior cingulotomy by drilling a small hole into a patient's skull. The surgeon then inserts a tiny blade, cutting a path through brain tissue, then inserts a probe past sensitive nerves and bundles of blood vessels until it reaches a specific cluster of neural connections, a kind of switchboard linking emotional triggers to cognitive tasks. With the probe in place, the surgeon fires up a laser, burning away tissue until the beam has hollowed out about half a teaspoon of grey matter.
This is the shape of modern psychosurgery: Ablating parts of the brain to treat mental illnesses. Which might remind you of that maligned procedure, the lobotomy. But psychosurgeries are different. And not just because the ethics are better today; because the procedures actually work. Removing parts of a person's brain is always a dicey proposition. But for people who are mentally ill, when pills and psychiatry offer no solace, the laser-tipped probe can be a welcome relief.
Original Submission
(Score: 2) by aristarchus on Friday June 26 2015, @09:59PM
Not so much the science, but Star Trek, all of them, are excellent sources for thought experiments on medical ethics. For example, one episode of Enterprise (the Cap't Archer one) dealt with creating a clone to harvest organs to transplant into a mortally injured crew member, which would kill the clone. Some implausible plot devices, but came down to an issue of informed consent. Another from The "Wrath of Khan" movie (ignoring for now the whole "genetically engineered master race" thing", where Bones' "pain" was that he euthanized his father, a very current issue in medical ethics, with the added twist that a cure for his father's condition was found only a few weeks later. And a favorite from "The Next Generation" is when Data the android is ordered to report to Earth to be disassembled so the Federation can replicate him. When he asks whether they will be able to re-assemble him, they honestly answer, "not sure". So Data resigns his commission, but Star Fleet argues he cannot, since he is property (an android, a machine, a thing) and not a person. Interesting courts martial on this one. So science fiction may be more about imagining our ethical futures than it has anything to do with what actual technological futures might be, but that is precisely what makes it valuable.
(Score: 2) by aristarchus on Friday June 26 2015, @10:05PM
edit
Wrath of Khan(insert) Star Trek V: The Final Frontier(Score: 3, Informative) by RedBear on Friday June 26 2015, @10:19PM
I agree, the episode where Data has to fight to be recognized as a free sentient being by Starfleet is one of the best of the entire series. Beautifully written and acted and powerfully thought-provoking, with deep implications for our future relationship with machine intelligences, and not just the humanoid ones. Star Trek was singularly adept at tackling ethical questions in a meaningful way. I miss that.
¯\_ʕ◔.◔ʔ_/¯ LOL. I dunno. I'm just a bear.
... Peace out. Got bear stuff to do. 彡ʕ⌐■.■ʔ