This week's question concerns brain scans and the legal system. In 2008 a judge in India convicted a woman of murdering her fiancee based partly on brain scan evidence that gauged her ability to remember details of the crime. And in the US, fMRI scans have already found their way into courtrooms and more attempts are on the horizon. In response, two psychologists and a law expert from Stanford University conducted a study to determine how much information about memories can be seen in brain activity. Using fMRI to scan the brains of healthy adults, the researchers were able to measure how strong their subjects' sense of a specific memory was; but they could not tell for sure whether the memories themselves were based on a recollection of an actual experience.
What do you think? Should brain scans be admissible as legal evidence?
RESULTS- YES
- 10.45%
- NO
- 89.55%
