Against the Mandatory Use of Neurointerventions in Criminal Sentencing

Abstract

This chapter provides reasons for thinking that mandatory neurointerventions should never be ordered as part of a criminal sentence. Neurointerventions interfere with the rights to mental and bodily integrity, whereas incarceration interferes with freedom of movement. Violating mental and bodily integrity is generally more disrespectful and harder to justify than interfering with freedom of movement. The author suggests that the disrespectful social meaning of actions that violate mental and bodily integrity is unlikely to change in the future. Furthermore, she argues that even if there are certain cases where interfering with mental integrity by itself, or bodily integrity by itself is acceptable, a cumulative wrong can emerge when both rights are violated together. Neurointerventions give rise to this cumulative wrong.