The controversial relationship between neuroscience and moral responsibility in psychopaths

Background From fields such as neuroethicsand legal medicine it is increasingly common to raise the issue on whether it is necessary to rethink questions such as moral and criminal responsibility in individuals fulfilling Hare’s criteria for psychopathy. The Hare’s Psychopathy ChecklistRevised is currently the diagnostic gold standard for psychopathyand defines a type of personality characterized by interpersonal, affective, and behavioral symptoms. Moral and criminal responsibility in these individuals is now being reconsidered due to new data provided by neuroscience. However, the translation from these neuroscientific findings into terms of moral responsibilityis neither direct nor evident. The aim of this review is to assemble the available neuroscientific evidence and to clarify the moral consequences of these findings.