The project, which will address the ethical, legal and social questions raised by novel neurotherapeutic methods of detecting and manipulating brain functions, will be conducted with her co-applicant, Dr. Eric Racine from the Institut de Recherches Cliniques de Montréal.
Professor Chandler intends to provide a systematic ethically-oriented study of the state of memory research, of its therapeutic and non-therapeutic applications, and the ethics of those applications. In particular, the work will assist researchers in understanding the ethical questions raised by their work and physicians trying to decide how ethically to respond to patients' requests for memory manipulation, or to government or judicial demands for the application of memory detection techniques. The research will also help patients considering memory-modulating treatments to understand the trade-offs for identity, autonomy, fairness and their place in their communities. The project will employ several research assistants as key members of the research team, and will include law students interested in biomedical ethics, neuroethics and the regulation of scientific research.
Professor Chandler is also engaged in studies of the use of neuroscientific and behavioural genetic evidence by Canadian courts, the regulation of scientific inquiry in the context of stem cell research, and empirical bioethics research related to organ donation and transplantation. She will be teaching a new course this winter on mental health law and neuroethics.
Congratulations Professor Chandler.