The Law and Ethics of Reading the Mind from Brain Data

Musk’s Neuralink recently announced a trial of its implanted brain-computer interface (BCI) will start soon in Toronto. BCIs and other devices that monitor and decode brain activity offer promising possibilities for people with severe motor disabilities, including people unable to communicate.  This is not all that is now being done with the interpretation of brain activity data – in some places, this data is being used in criminal investigations to identify guilty knowledge.

A host of questions are now arising about the nature of the link between brain activity data and mental states, and whether privacy laws and concepts are up to the task of a future in which we access the mind in this new way.

About the speaker

Professor Jennifer A. Chandler is a Full Professor and the Bertram Loeb Research Chair in Organ and Tissue Donation in the Faculty of Law, Common Law Section and a Faculty member at the Centre for Law, Technology at the University of Ottawa.  She studies the legal and ethical aspects of biomedical science and technology, with a focus on the intersection of the brain sciences, law and ethics. She also works on legal policy related to organ donation and transplantation and mental health law and policy.