Equity of Access

Equity of access concerns the fair distribution of neurotechnology's benefits and burdens. High-performance BCIs are expensive, surgically and logistically demanding, and available mainly through a few research programs, so access is currently shaped by geography, wealth, and trial eligibility rather than need. The NeuroRights Initiative lists 'fair access to mental augmentation' as a core neuroright partly to forestall a future in which cognitive enhancement widens existing inequalities.

Equity also has a within-research dimension: who is selected as a participant, whether historically excluded groups are represented, and whether benefits (and the data generated) return to the communities that bear the risks. It intersects with reimbursement and health-system design, since even an approved therapy is not truly accessible if it is unaffordable or uncovered.