Ethical requisites for neuroenhancement of moral motivation

Abstract

No agreement exists among ethical theories on what can count as a right moral motivation. This hampers us from knowing whether an intervention in motivation biology can be considered positive for human morality. To overcome this difficulty, this paper identifies minimal requirements for moral enhancement that could be accepted by the major moral theories. Subsequently four possible scenarios are pre-sented where the most promising neural interventions on moral motiva-tion are implemented, by means of drugs, electromagnetic stimulation of brain, or biotechnological brain implants. The ultimate goal of this paper is to evaluate the results of each one of these interventions according to their capacity to fulfill the identified requirements