Neurology and Ethics: Recognizing Values in Patient Care and Learning to Address Neuroethical Dilemmas

In this week's episode of the Neurophilia Podcast, we sat down with Dr. Paul Ford, Ph.D., and Professor Lauren Sankary, JD to discuss the relationship between neurology and clinical ethics. We talk about the emerging and rapidly changing field of neuroethics, share common ethical dilemmas in neurology, and discuss ways to recognize and uphold patient values during difficult decisions.

Dr. Paul Ford, Ph.D. is currently the director of the Neuroethics Program at Cleveland Clinic and has more than 20 years of experience providing ethics consultations to patients, research participants, healthcare professionals, researchers, and others.  He has authorship on more than a hundred publications that range from commentaries to scientific papers.  He has a special focus on ethical challenges surrounding neurotechnology and clinical neurology.  His undergraduate degrees were in mathematics, computer science, and humanities before transitioning to a Ph.D. in Philosophy followed by a fellowship in transplantation ethics.

Professor Lauren Sankary, JD, is currently the Associate Director of the Cleveland Clinic Neuroethics Program at Cleveland Clinic. After completing a two-and-a-half-year neuroethics fellowship at Cleveland Clinic, Ms. Sankary joined the Cleveland Clinic’s Neurological Institute as a clinical ethicist in 2020. She received a J.D. with a concentration in Health Law and a Master of Arts from Case Western Reserve University after receiving a B.A. in Rhetoric from the University of California, Berkeley. Professor Lauren Sankary's research focuses on ethical issues raised by neurological research and innovative neurosurgical intervention. Her current research is funded by the Alzheimer’s Association and previous studies have been funded by the National Institute on Aging and the National Institute for Neurological Disorders and Stroke.

 References:
Illes, J., & Bird, S. J. (2006). Neuroethics: A modern context for ethics in neuroscience. Trends in Neurosciences, 29(9), 511–517. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tins.2006.07.002

Young, M. J., & Bernat, J. L. (2022). Emerging subspecialties in neurology: Neuroethics. Neurology, 98(12), 505–508. https://doi.org/10.1212/wnl.0000000000200054