Classroom Discussion Guide on Ethics and Neuroscience

This guide provides discussion questions and topics based on the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues’ report Gray Matters: Topics at the Intersection of Neuroscience, Ethics, and Society (Gray Matters, Vol. 2), to help instructors integrate ethics discussions into a high school or college science course.

The discussion guide presents the three topics addressed by the Bioethics Commission: 1) cognitive enhancement, 2) consent capacity, and 3) neuroscience and the courtroom. Relevant questions for classroom discussion are also provided.

Download the discussion guide here.

Listen to "Episode 5: Gray Matters", an episode of Ethically Sounda podcast of the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues.


Ethically Sound Episodes

The Bioethics Commission has launched a new podcast series entitled Ethically Sound.  

Each podcast is playable direct online from the link(s) below or from SoundCloud, iTunes or the Ethically Sound Playlist on Youtube.  Follow the hashtag #EthicallySound for launch announcements.

Safeguarding Children

Ethics and Ebola

Anticipate and Communicate

Privacy & Progress

Gray Matters

New Directions

Moral Science

Ethically Impossible

Bioethics for Every Generation

Charting a Path Forward

This is a work of the U.S. Government and is not subject to copyright protection in the United States. Foreign copyrights may apply.