Intent-reading in fMRI and BCI enabled communication: ethical reflections

4. The fragility of the human condition comes to the foreground in suggested uses of BCI technologies for communicating with subjects affected by disorders of consciousness. Ethical motivations have been advanced to ask these subjects questions about subjective pain reporting, research trial participation, and continued medical care. These questions are selectively found to presuppose in their recipients the ascription of phenomenal consciousness and introspection of incorrigible sensory experiences, the reflective ability to change one’s own mental states, and forms of narrative consciousness. Identifying these presuppositions is crucial to evaluate moral obligations to enter communication in these contexts, and to curb premature expectations about scientific and technological research.