Limitations | prosthetics

Current prosthetics have several limitations such as economic,social and their safety aspects. Firstly, mind-controlled prosthetics are priced at US$8million. This will create a financial barrier that restricts possible users from using this form of technology.Secondly, mind controlled prosthetics will blur the lines between humans and users. Lastly, mind-controlled prosthetics require an open skull surgery which presents a huge risk, and it could also be used as a weapon.

Economic

The cost of mind-controlled prosthetics are in the millions, US$8 million (Parmar, 2012), many would not have the financial capabilities to purchase these prosthetics. For example, Mr Zac Vawter successfully climbed 103 flight of stairs of the tallest building in the North America. However, his bionic leg cost US$8 million dollars and weigh around 10lbs (Parmar, 2012). This could essentially make mind-controlled prosthetics a luxury good which is not easily accessible to the majority of handicaps.

Social & Ethical

The possibility of mind-controlled prosthetics taking over our natural human limbs is very real. These prosthetics could have abilities that our natural limbs are limited by. For instance, taking a look at Oscar Pistorius who’s a Paralympic athlete, there has been claims that his artificial limbs gave him an advantage over runners with natural ankles and feet. He runs with J-shaped carbon fibre prosthetics called the “Flex-Foot Cheetah” developed by biomedical engineer Van Phillips and manufactured by Ossur (taken from Wikipedia.org). Could mind-controlled prosthetics create a new class of athletes, who are enhanced by these artificial limbs and eventually outperform humans? Therefore this could create a divide between natural athletes and enhanced athletes.
Will money be the sole factor as to who gets to use mind-controlled prosthesis? And should mind-controlled prosthesis be available to able-bodied humans? These are some ethical issues to consider

Safety Aspect

Currently, microchips has to be implanted into the brain, which involves an open brain surgery, this surgery is extremely dangerous and any mistakes would be life threatening (Thakor, n.d). Moreover, these chips would emit signals of certain frequency to their prosthetic limbs to control them.
Could these frequencies be duplicated by hackers? This would allow the hackers to control these limbs from a remote location, which could be dangerous.
Mind-controlled prosthetics could be used as a weapon.