Neuroethics and Neurolaw in Turkey

Abstract

This section is dedicated to examining the subject “Neuroethics and Neurolaw in Turkey”. The development of medicine and related branches in Turkey generally demonstrates a parallelism with the examples from the similar countries in the world. In brief, the contemporary criterions are applicable to both education and daily practices of these fields. In this context, the headlines under the disciplines of neurology and neurosurgery shall be evaluated from the medical ethics and medical law points of view under the heading of scientific neurothics and neurolaws. Today, the worthiness problems related with the end of life constitute one of the most important subjects of discussion in medical ethics. In the neurology area, where this problem frequently arises, the commands: do not apply euthanasia and do not resuscitate are two important phenomena to be studied closely. A very crucial subject from the organ transplantation point of view is making the decision on the “brain death”. The specialists on neurosurgery and neurology in Turkey are legally tasked among the decision-making doctors in this subject. Therefore, this is one of the headings that will be discussed in the text from both ethical and deontological or medical law points of view. Thus, referring to an eternal problem of medicine “terminating a life” and also to a new concept the organ trade, belonging to the 21st century and which is the result of modern economical and political factors. The “clinical researches” shall be discussed as a rather discrete dimension of the daily doctor – patient relations under the heading of neurological sciences as a separate subsection within the text. Here, we shall discuss how the concept of informed consent may be applied to the patient and subject groups which the neurological sciences deal with in the normal daily medical applications and in research phases and the potential problems related with it. Another concept to be scrutinized here is how experimental treatments may be turned out to be a subject of hope trade in some communities. Finally, this section is a response given from a geography on the junction of Asia and Europe to the query of how different nations may develop different approaches to similar subjects from a “neuroethics and neurolaw” point of view.