23、智利：开创神经权利保护之先河 ...
-
Neurorights | 智利：开创神经权利保护之先河
原创 UNESCO Courier 联合国教科文信使
智利将会成为世界上首个通过立法来规范神经技术并将“脑权利”纳入本国宪法的国家。
洛雷娜·古斯曼·H.
（Lorena Guzmán H.）
科学记者，常驻智利圣地亚哥
2021年，智利参议院一致批准了一项关于为保护脑权利或“神经权利”而修正宪法的法案。同年9月，众议院审查并批准了该修正案。如今，该法案有望获得智利总统签署，从而正式被写入法律。
该程序一旦完成，智利将成为世界上首个立法保护精神隐私、自由意志和公民不受歧视地获得神经技术的国家。此举旨在赋予个人脑数据与器官同等的地位，使其不可被买卖、贩运或操纵。
与此同时，智利正在考虑通过一项宪法改革来修正该国宪法《大宪章》（Magna Carta）的第19条，目的是“防止大脑的完整性和精神保障受到神经技术发展带来的进步和能力的影响”。
鉴于目前神经技术作用于人脑的能力仍然有限，采用这种法律手段似乎为时过早。但专家们已经敲响了警钟，坚持认为有必要在侵入式应用普及之前进行相关立法——尤其是在神经技术领域加速发展的情况下。
2021年4月，企业家埃隆·马斯克（Elon Musk）的脑机接口公司Neuralink发布了一段视频，画面中，一只被植入了脑机接口的猴子正在玩电子游戏。该场景使用的脑机接口技术尚处于起步阶段，但它为无数应用的出现开辟了道路。
危险的衍生品
智利参议院未来挑战委员会早在三年前就对神经技术产生了兴趣，其原因正是这种技术进步的扩散。当时，美国人类脑图绘制项目——脑计划的发起者之一、纽约哥伦比亚大学神经生物学家拉斐尔·尤斯特（Rafael Yuste）前来拜访，自那之后，委员会便开始关注这些技术进步给人类安全和自由意志带来的风险。
虽然神经技术的发展有望为多种病症的治疗带来帮助——包括瘫痪以及帕金森病、阿尔茨海默病等退行性疾病——但是该技术可能会导致人脑被操控。
“法规必须快速发展进步。”该项立法的发起人之一、参议员兼该委员会主席圭多·吉拉迪（Guido Girardi）警告称。他说：“现在已经出现了一些技术，不仅可以直接读取大脑信息、破译人们的想法和感受，还可以植入不属于本人自身的感觉。”
令人高度关注的不仅仅是技术本身，还有其潜在的应用方式。经未来挑战委员会任命负责起草该项立法的专家之一、智利天主教大学法学院教授卡洛斯·阿穆纳特吉（Carlos Amunátegui）发出警告：“如果坐等这项技术成熟，那么我们可能将永远无法控制它。”
瓦尔帕莱索大学教授、心理学家巴勃罗·洛佩斯-席尔瓦（Pablo López-Silva）表示：“如果认为这些技术进步不会转化为商业应用，那就太天真了。虽然这些技术发展本身没有问题，但是当监管缺位，技术发展就可能跨越危险的边界。”
他解释说，商业应用可能会被黑客入侵，或是包含“神经cookies”——用于识别消费者的偏好，并最终植入新的偏好。
法律真空
智利并非唯一对神经技术领域的法律真空状态感到担忧的国家。西班牙、美国、法国，最近还有阿根廷都已开始研究这一问题。联合国和美洲国家组织也正在密切关注该事项。
但是这一任务却很复杂。立法必须足够广泛，才能适应新技术的发展，同时确保对公民给予保护。智利大学医学院神经科学系主任、千禧年生物医学神经科学研究所副研究员佩德罗·马尔多纳多（Pedro Maldonado）指出：“我们当下所讨论的草案并未定义何为精神活动或者何为神经连接。”
这个问题看似属于理论范畴，实则是解决现实困境的关键，因为神经科学既是对大脑活动的研究，也包含对个人身份由来的探讨。洛佩斯-席尔瓦说：“虽然神经元活动是我们发展不同个性、成就独特自我的必要基础，但它绝非构成人之存在的唯一要素。”
规范神经科学的立法也提出了关于同意的议题。公民/消费者在许可某种应用使用关于自身习惯的数据之前，必须能够作出知情决定，即，确切地知道数据的使用方式。因此，必须确保每个人都真正能够获得这一信息，洛佩斯-席尔瓦强调说。
另一个核心议题是使用权。每个人都应不受歧视地得益于神经技术所带来的进步，而且这些进步最终不会被少数人所垄断，这一点至关重要。然而，对该议题的讨论仍然相当模糊。
“我们怎样才能确保人人都能平等地使用这项技术呢？”马尔多纳多提出了这个问题。“法律案文在这一点上不够明确
《奥德蕾·阿祖莱：充分施展人工智能的潜力》
—联合国教科文组织，2018年7-9月https://zh.unesco.org/courier/2018-3/ao-lei-zu-lai-chong-fen-shi-zhan-ren-gong-zhi-neng-qian-li
Chile: Pioneering the protection of neurorights
Chile is set to become the first country in the world to legislate on neurotechnologies and include “brain rights” in its constitution.
Lorena Guzmán H.
Science journalist, based in Santiago, Chile.
In 2021, Chile’s Senate lunanimously approved a bill to amend the constitution to protect brain rights or “neurorights”. The Chamber of Deputies reviewed and approved the amendment in September that year. It is now expected that the bill will be signed into law by the country’s president.
Once the process is completed, Chile will become the world’s first country to have legislation to protect mental privacy, free will and non-discrimination in citizens’ access to neurotechnology. The aim is to give personal brain data the same status as an organ, so that it cannot be bought or sold, trafficked or manipulated.
At the same time, a constitutional reform to amend Article 19 of the Magna Carta, the country's constitution, is being considered to “protect the integrity and mental indemnity of the brain from the advances and capacities developed by neurotechnologies”.
The adoption of such a legal arsenal may seem premature in view of the development of neurotechnologies, which are still limited in their capacity to act on the human brain. But experts are already sounding the alarm and insisting on the need to legislate before intrusive applications become widespread – especially as progress in the field of neurotechnology continues to accelerate.
In April 2021, Neuralink, entrepreneur Elon Musk’s brain-machine interface company, released a video of a monkey playing a video game after getting implants. The brain-machine interface technology used to do this is still in its infancy, but it opens the way to an infinite number of applications.
Dangerous spin-offs
It was precisely this proliferation of technological advances that prompted the Chilean Senate's Future Challenges Commission to take an interest in neurotechnology three years ago. Following a visit by Rafael Yuste – a neurobiologist at Columbia University, New York, and one of the initiators of the BRAIN Initiative, a United States project to map the human brain – the Commission began to be concerned about the risks these advances pose to human security and free will.
While the development of neurotechnology offers hope for many patients – including those with paralysis or degenerative diseases such as Parkinson's or Alzheimer's – it could lead to the manipulation of the human brain.
“Regulations must evolve quickly,” warns Guido Girardi, senator and president of the Commission, and one of the initiators of the legislation. "There are already technologies that can directly read the brain, decipher what people are thinking and feeling, but also implant feelings that are not one’s own.”
More than the technology itself, it is the potential applications that are of most concern. “If we wait for the technology to mature, we may never be able to control it,” warns Carlos Amunátegui, professor at the law school of the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile, and one of the experts appointed by the Commission to draft the legislation.
“It would be naive to think that these advances will not translate into commercial applications,” says Pablo López-Silva, a psychologist and professor at the University of Valparaiso. “While the development of these technologies is not a problem in itself, it can cross dangerous boundaries if there is no regulation.”
Such applications, he explains, could be hacked or contain “neuro cookies” that would allow them to identify a consumer's preferences, and eventually, to implant new ones.
Legal vacuum
Chile is not the only country concerned about the legal vacuum that surrounds neurotechnologies. Spain, US, France, and more recently, Argentina, have begun to study the issue. The United Nations and the Organization of American States have also taken a keen interest in the subject.
But the task is complex. Legislation must be broad enough to be able to adapt to the evolution of new technologies, while ensuring the protection of citizens. “The drafts under discussion do not define what mental activity or neural connections are,” says Pedro Maldonado, director of the Department of Neuroscience and associate researcher at the Millennium Institute of Biomedical Neuroscience (BNI) at the University of Chile’s Faculty of Medicine.
The question may seem theoretical, but it is crucial to the extent that neuroscience is at the frontier between brain activity and what creates an individual’s own identity. “We are much more than neuronal activity, even though this activity is clearly necessary for us to be the type of person we are,” states López-Silva.
The legislation to regulate neuroscience also raises the issue of consent. Before granting permission to an application that uses data on their habits, citizens/consumers must be able to make an informed decision – that is, know exactly how the data will be used. It is therefore essential that this information is really accessible to everyone, López-Silva emphasizes.
Another key issue is access. It is essential that everyone, without discrimination, is able to benefit from the advances generated by neurotechnologies, and that they do not end up being reserved for a minority. This issue remains rather vague, however.
“How can we ensure equitable access to this technology?” Maldonado asks. “The legal texts are not clear enough on this poin
作者有话说
第23章 智利：开创神经权利保护之先河
