Identidade pessoal e neuroética: o novo desafio da filosofia

Since the end of the XX century, Neuroethics emerged as a new field of interdisciplinary research, with the purpose to reflect on the ethical challenges brought by neuroscientific and neurotechnological latest advances. This article aims to present the main key philosophical questions arising from neuroethics and tries to show how they can be unified in the broad philosophical problem of personal identity. In order to sustain it, this article has three core ideas: 1) both the brain and the mind are considered as the birth place of personal identity, as all brain medical manipulation may affect the mind’s nature and content, therefore, it may also affect personal identity; 2) moreover, direct and medical brain manipulation puts into a new perspective the philosophical issue of human freedom and responsibility; 3) finally, since disease may disrupt personal identity, it also raises issues regarding the ethics of physicianpatient relationships.