Neuroethics Now
Issue 01 / September 2026
Neuroethics Now
Issue 01 / September 2026
The Inaugural Issue
Neurotechnology is advancing faster than the laws designed to protect us. Neuroethics Now is working to change that.
Explore Our Work
Section 01
Feature Story
This September, representatives of Neuroethics Now traveled to Washington, DC for our first Hill Days, held September 14 to 17, 2026.
Over four days, our delegation met with congressional offices to bring forward the questions that neurotechnology now demands of policymakers. These were substantive working conversations grounded in research, existing law, and the experiences of the people this technology touches.
The questions we carried into every meeting:
On the Hill, September 2026: the Capitol, the Cannon House Office Building, and office visits including Representatives Raul Ruiz, Laura Gillen and John Garamendi.
The human mind should not become the next unprotected frontier. Neuroethics Now, Washington DC
Section 02
The Congressional Agenda
Four asks, each grounded in precedent and each answerable by existing institutions.
Support credible, independent mechanisms for investigating reports of nonconsensual neurotechnology related harm.
Create transparent pathways for reporting, evidence review and scientific evaluation.
Establish protections for cognitive liberty, mental privacy, informed consent and neural data.
Close legal gaps as neurotechnology, artificial intelligence and brain computer interfaces rapidly advance.
Inside the Hill Packet
Every meeting was supported by a curated briefing packet: primary sources, not talking points.
Section 03
Neurorights 101
Cognitive liberty is the principle that individuals should have control over their own minds and mental processes.
Neurorights apply familiar concepts such as privacy, autonomy and informed consent to a world in which technology can increasingly measure, interpret and potentially influence brain activity.
What happens in your brain stays yours. No one should read, record or share it without your permission.
You decide how you think. Your mental life is not open to interference by any technology, company or government.
Before any technology touches your brain or its data, you understand what it does and you agree to it. Clearly and freely.
Brain data is the most personal data there is. It deserves stronger safeguards than any other category of information.
No one may use neurotechnology to change what you think, feel or decide without your knowledge and agreement.
Section 04
The Long View
The United States has been here before. The path from past to present is not a straight line, but it is a lesson.
A covert CIA program conducted experiments on human subjects, many without consent.
Senate hearings examined MKULTRA and established that oversight had failed the public.
Government funded research dramatically expanded what science can measure in the living brain.
Programs such as DARPA's N3 pursued nonsurgical bidirectional brain machine interfaces.
Artificial intelligence makes neural signals newly interpretable, portable and valuable.
On June 30, 2026, a House Oversight hearing revisited MKULTRA. The legal questions remain open.
To be clear: modern research programs are not a continuation of historical abuses, and history is not proof of any present allegation. The editorial point is simpler and stronger. History demonstrates why emerging technologies affecting the human mind require transparency, informed consent, ethical oversight and enforceable protections.
Section 05
The Policy Gap
Capability, rights and law are supposed to move together. Today they don't. Read across the columns and the gap becomes visible.
Section 06
A Shared Table
Every one of these communities holds part of the answer. None holds all of it. Neuroethics Now exists to bring them to the same table.
Section 07
Looking Ahead
Hill Days were a beginning, not a destination. The next phase of our work:
Join the Conversation
Investigate.
Verify.
Protect.
The technology is moving quickly. The conversation about rights, consent and accountability needs to move just as quickly.
