Moral Bio-Enhancement for Offenders with Mental Disorders

Abstract

The current academic debate on moral bio-enhancement focuses largely on the use of neuro-interventions for offenders or forensic patients who are suffering from various cognitive, motivational and emotional impairments. As such impairments may involve risk factors for various kinds of immoral behaviour (e.g., sexual crimes, violence, and racism) moral bio-enhancement might provide a welcome solution (Douglas, 2008; Carter, 2016). It is obvious that a focus on individuals with cognitive, motivational and emotional impairments that constitute risk factors for immoral behaviour is a much more pressing ethical concern than a focus on the enhancement of individuals that possess normal moral decision-making skills and behaviour. Making individuals with normal moral decision-making skills more moral should be lower on our priority list compared to reducing violent and sexually deviant immoral behaviour. However, a host of important questions remain unanswered. (1) Is it desirable and in any way helpful to coin interventions or therapies for offenders with mental health problems under the umbrella of moral enhancement. What do we gain by describing these as (a) medically indicated moral enhancement interventions or as (b) biomedical interventions aimed at morally enhancing offenders and forensic patients. (2) How likely is the currently envisioned moral bio-enhancement project to succeed? Will such interventions be effective in reducing recidivism rates? Do forensic psychiatrists and psychologists welcome the use of biomedical (moral enhancement) interventions for offenders and forensic patients with mental disorders?