Wolpe, Paul Root

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2002 - 200711
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Now showing 1 - 10 of 11
  • Publication
    Re-examining ethical obligations in the intensive care unit: HIV disclosure to surrogates
    (2007-04-18) Wolpe, Paul Root; Vernillo, Anthony T; Halpern, Scott D
    Physicians treating newly incapacitated patients often must help navigate surrogate decision-makers through a difficult course of treatment decisions, while safeguarding the patient's autonomy. We offer guidance for intensive care physicians who must frequently address the difficult questions concerning disclosure of confidential information to surrogates. Three clinical vignettes will highlight the ethical challenges to physician disclosure of a critically ill patient's HIV status. Two key distinctions are offered that influence the propriety of disclosure: first, whether HIV infection represents a 'primary cause' for the patient's critical illness; and second, whether the surrogate may be harmed by failure to disclose HIV status. This balanced consideration of the direct duties of physicians to patients, and their indirect duties to surrogates and third-party contacts, may be used as a framework for considering other ethical obligations in the intensive care unit. We also provide a tabulation of individual US state laws relevant to disclosure of HIV status.
  • Publication
    The Neuroscience Revolution
    (2002-07-01) Wolpe, Paul Root
  • Publication
    Emerging neurotechnologies for lie-detection: promises and perils
    (2005-03-01) Wolpe, Paul Root; Foster, Kenneth; Langleben, Daniel D.
    Detection of deception and confirmation of truth telling with conventional polygraphy raised a host of technical and ethical issues. Recently, newer methods of recording electromagnetic signals from the brain show promise in permitting the detection of deception or truth telling. Some are even being promoted as more accurate than conventional polygraphy. While the new technologies raise issues of personal privacy, acceptable forensic application, and other social issues, the focus of this paper is the technical limitations of the developing technology. Those limitations include the measurement validity of the new technologies, which remains largely unknown. Another set of questions pertains to the psychological paradigms used to model or constrain the target behavior. Finally, there is little standardization in the field, and the vulnerability of the techniques to countermeasures is unknown. Premature application of these technologies outside of research settings should be resisted, and the social conversation about the appropriate parameters of its civil, forensic, and security use should begin.
  • Publication
    Bioethics and the Brain
    (2003-06-01) Foster, Kenneth R; Wolpe, Paul Root; Caplan, Arthur L.
    Microelectronics and medical imaging are bringing us closer to a world where mind reading is possible and blindness banished--but we may not want to live there. New ways of imaging the human brain and new developments in microelectronics are providing unprecedented capabilities for monitoring the brain in real time and even for controlling brain function. The technologies are novel, but some of the questions that they will raise are not. Electrical activity in the brain can reveal the contents of a person's memory. New imaging techniques might allow physician to detect devastating diseases long before those diseases become clinically apparent. And researchers may one day find brain activity that correlates with behavior patterns such as tendencies toward alcoholism, aggression, pedophilia, or racism. But how reliable will the information be, how should it be used, and what will it do to our notion of privacy? Meanwhile, microelectronics is making access to the brain a two-way street. The same electrical stimulation technologies that allow some deaf people to hear could be fashioned to control behavior as well. What are the appropriate limits to the use of this technology? Ethicists are only now beginning to take note of these developments in neuroscience.
  • Publication
  • Publication
    Monitoring and manipulating the human brain: new neuroscience technologies and their ethical implications
    (2004-05-01) Farah, Martha J.; Wolpe, Paul Root
    Discusses the use of new neuroscience technologies in monitoring and manipulating brain function, as of May 2004. History of modern brain imaging; Implications of neuroimaging for medical ethics; Factors that contributed to brain enhancement.
  • Publication
    Reasons Scientists Avoid Thinking about Ethics
    (2006-06-16) Wolpe, Paul Root
    Science is a powerful force for change in modern society. As the professionals at its helm, scientists have a unique responsibility to shepherd that change with thoughtful advocacy of their research and careful ethical scrutiny of their own behavior. In this paper, the author reviews some of the impediments that keeps scientists from taking ethical responsibility for their own work and the work in their institutions and fields of study.
  • Publication
    Emerging Neurotechnologies for Lie Detection and the Fifth Amendment
    (2007-01-01) Stoller, Sarah E; Wolpe, Paul Root
    The article examines the legal implications and advantages of emerging Neurotechnological Lie Detection (NTLD). The self-incrimination clause of the Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was taken into account, including its scope over NTLD. Key information about the reliability and privacy issues of NTLD is further presented.
  • Publication
    Bioethics and the Brain
    (2003-06-01) Foster, Kenneth R; Wolpe, Paul Root; Caplan, Arthur L.
    Microelectronics and medical imaging are bringing us closer to a world where mind reading is possible and blindness banished - but we may not want to live there. New ways of imaging the human brain and new developments in microelectronics are providing unprecedented capabilities for monitoring the brain in real time and even for controlling brain function. The technologies are novel, but some of the questions that they will raise are not. Electrical activity in the brain can reveal the contents of a person's memory. New imaging techniques might allow physician to detect devastating diseases long before those diseases become clinically apparent. And researchers may one day find brain activity that correlates with behavior patterns such as tendencies toward alcoholism, aggression, pedophilia, or racism. But how reliable will the information be, how should it be used, and what will it do to our notion of privacy? Meanwhile, microelectronics is making access to the brain a two-way street. The same electrical stimulation technologies that allow some deaf people to hear could be fashioned to control behavior as well. What are the appropriate limits to the use of this technology? Ethicists are only now beginning to take note of these developments in neuroscience.
  • Publication
    Brain Research and Neuroethics
    (2003-09-01) Farah, Martha J.; Wolpe, Paul Root; Caplan, Arthur L.
    In the past year "neuroethics" has begun to command the attention of neuroscientists, ethicists and journalists. Ethical questions associated with new knowledge of the human brain have received extensive coverage in the popular press with cover stories in The Economist and The New Scientist. There has also been a burst of discussion in the scientific literature (Farah, 2002; Wolpe, 2003), and a number of professional conferences have recently focused attention on the field. The current capability of neuroscience to monitor and alter brain function has profound ethical implications, which scientists and the public have only begun to examine.