Reflections of a neuroscientist on the origins of ethics

Abstract

The increased globalization of economics, communications and of medical care raises many issues of ethics and science and their applications on the global scale. A critical question to consider is the possibility of common agreement between people sharing different moral, philosophical or religious traditions. Common neurocognitive predispositions to moral judgement, which are found in the human species, may plausibly give access to common ethical values as a result of shared deliberations, despite differences in cultural traditions and social conventions. Various national bioethics committees have opened the debate at the national level, and extension to a global scale could be achieved by the creation of a Council for the Ethics of Science at the United Nations level.