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CONSCIOUSNESS, THE BRAIN AND WHAT MATTERS 1
Author(s) -
GILLETT GRANT
Publication year - 1990
Publication title -
bioethics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.494
H-Index - 55
eISSN - 1467-8519
pISSN - 0269-9702
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-8519.1990.tb00082.x
Subject(s) - consciousness , obligation , value (mathematics) , intentionality , moral obligation , neocortex , psychology , sentience , epistemology , philosophy , environmental ethics , social psychology , political science , law , neuroscience , machine learning , computer science
Grant Gillett argues that it is consciousness which makes a human or other being the 'locus of ethical value'. Since cortical functioning is, in Gillett's view, necessary for conscious activity, an individual whose neocortex is permanently non-functional is no longer a locus of ethical value and cannot be benefited or harmed in a morally relevant sense. This means that there is no obligation to continue treating those who have suffered neocortical death.