| Sumario: | Behavior control was a core focus for the Hastings Center at its inception. At the time the center was established, investigators were starting to identify areas of the brain that were responsible for specific behaviors, and some scientists had begun to look for ways to change brain function with the aim of modifying undesirable or even threatening behaviors. Ethical concerns about such research centered on surgical and pharmacological approaches used to achieve these goals. Psychotropic drugs emerged as the treatment of choice for children classed as having behavioral disorders. The ultimate outcome of behavior control was that a behavior once labeled antisocial or illegal was now relabeled as a sickness, thereby changing attitudes toward the individual and dictating how the problem should be managed. Behavior control debates have yielded new insights into the nature of autonomy, freedom, and coercion and the relationship between individual rights and societal needs.
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