Neurorights framework
Neurorights are proposed human rights meant to protect the brain and mind against the specific risks of reading from and writing to neural activity. Two influential taxonomies compete. Ienca and Andorno (2017) proposed four: cognitive liberty, mental privacy, mental integrity, and psychological continuity. The NeuroRights Foundation, associated with Rafael Yuste, promotes five: mental privacy, personal identity, free will (agency), fair access to mental augmentation, and protection from algorithmic bias.
These frameworks are advocacy and scholarship rather than a settled body of law. They have shaped constitutional reform (Chile), soft-law instruments (UNESCO, OECD), and national ethics commissions, but the precise legal content, scope, and enforceability of each right remain contested and vary across proposals.
A live scholarly debate asks whether new rights are needed at all, or whether existing human rights — privacy, integrity of the person, freedom of thought — already cover neurotechnology if properly interpreted. Critics such as Bublitz warn of 'rights inflation' that could dilute existing protections; proponents argue neurotech poses qualitatively novel threats. An honest reading: the normative goals are widely shared, but the legal architecture to deliver them is unsettled.