Decoding the brain, respecting the person : a neuroethical inquiry into consent and cognitive liberty in South Africa

Abstract

As neurotechnologies emerge in South Africa's clinical, research, and consumer health landscapes, existing informed consent models, predominantly shaped by Western individualist ethics, prove insufficient. Neural data, uniquely intimate and increasingly commodified, poses profound ethical and legal risks, including mental privacy violations, behavioural profiling, and cultural alienation. This article interrogates these risks through a neuroethical lens grounded in African relational philosophy, particularly Ubuntu, which emphasises communal personhood, collective decision-making, and spiritual interconnectedness. We analyse the limitations of South African and international legal frameworks, arguing that they neither adequately recognise neural data as a distinct category nor accommodate culturally appropriate consent processes. In response, we propose a pluralistic, relational consent framework that incorporates tiered, dynamic, and interactive mechanisms, sensitive to linguistic, educational, and spiritual diversity. By centring cognitive liberty and advocating for sui generis neurorights protections, this paper contributes a decolonial, culturally situated perspective to global neuroethics and informs more inclusive governance models for neural technologies in legally and socially pluralistic societies.