e-2905 Civil and human rights
Elizabeth May
Civil and human rights,Nervous system
October 30, 2021, at 8:58 a.m. (EDT)
Petition to the House of Commons
  Whereas:
  
    Rapid advancements in neurotechnology open unprecedented possibilities for accessing, collecting, sharing, and manipulating information from the brain;
    Prosthetic limbs can be wired directly into the brain, and operate intuitively as if they were never lost;
    Neurological devices, including neuroweapons, are constantly becoming more prevalent in society;
    Legal safeguards surrounding the possibilities for misuse, or unintended consequences, are lagging far behind the escalating state of neurotechnology;
    There are precedents, across the entire globe, of governmental entities experimenting on unwitting civilians in an effort to expedite advancements within the field of neurotechnology (i.e. Project MKULTRA, etc.);
    Canada’s current human rights are not absolute, nor are they sufficient enough to protect the population from emerging issues;
    Development of these rights should be conducted by a panel of decorated neuroscientists, legal experts, technology developers, human rights advocates, and neuroethicists appointed by the House of Commons;
    The following neuro-specific human rights, cited from the paper “Towards new human rights in the age of neuroscience and neurotechnology” (Ienca and Andorno, 2017), can serve as the foundation for development; and
    It is vital that the neuro-specific human rights are enacted into law as absolute rights.
  
  
    We, the undersigned, citizens of Canada, call upon the House of Commons to allow Canada to become one of the first countries to enshrine neuro-specific human rights into legislation, including:
    1. The right to cognitive liberty;
    2. The right to mental privacy;
    3. The right to mental integrity; and
    4. The right to psychological continuity.