Whether current or near-term AI systems could be conscious is a topic of scientific interest
and increasing public concern. This report argues for, and exemplifies, a rigorous and …

Patients with disorders of consciousness (DoC) who survive to discharge following severe
brain injury can face profoundly complex medical, ethical, and psychosocial challenges …

Consciousness-based approaches to non-human moral status maintain that consciousness
is necessary for (some degree or level of) moral status. While these approaches are intuitive …

Self-induced cognitive trance (SICT) is a voluntary non-ordinary state of consciousness
characterized by a lucid yet narrowed awareness of the external surroundings. It involves a …

Diagnostic, prognostic, and therapeutic procedures for patients with prolonged disorders of
consciousness (pDoCs) vary significantly across countries and clinical settings, likely due to …

The possibility of consciousness in human brain organoids is sometimes viewed as
determinative in terms of the moral status such entities possess, and, in turn, in terms of the …

Two problems related to the identification of consciousness are the distribution problem—or
how and among which entities consciousness is distributed in the world—and the moral …

There are several foci of ethical concern when families and surrogates object to the
declaration of death by neurologic criteria. This chapter examines the implicit metaphysical …

Some patients, following brain injury, do not outwardly respond to spoken commands, yet
show patterns of brain activity that indicate responsiveness. This is 'cognitive-motor …

Some physicians refuse to perform life-sustaining interventions, such as tracheostomy, on
patients who are very likely to remain permanently unconscious. To explain their refusal …