The Emerging Field of Human Neural Organoids, Transplants, and Chimeras Science, Ethics, and Governance (2021) / Chapter Skim
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3 Ethical Concerns
3 Ethical Concerns
Pages 45-64
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From page 45... ...
Chapter 2 presents the science behind these models and describes the challenges of measuring and monitoring such characteristics and capacities in human neural organoids, transplants, and chimeras. These capacities are rudimentary at present, but because the field is developing quickly, it is important to consider both current ethical concerns and those that might be raised by enhanced capacities in the future.
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From page 46... ...
ISSUES COMMON TO ALL THREE MODELS Ethical issues common to human neural organoids, transplants, and chimeras include (1) the ethical value of relieving human suffering and disease, (2)
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From page 47... ...
Some research uses neural tissue that is resected during surgery or obtained postmortem, tissues that would otherwise be discarded. There is broad agreement on the need to respect humans who provide biological materials used to generate human neural organoids, transplants, or chimeras.
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From page 48... ...
Some consent forms separate consent for surgery from consent for future research on the removed tissue to make clear that patients may have the clinical procedure without agreeing to research on their excised tissue. Later in this chapter is a discussion of debates over whether such broad consent should or should not be viewed as sufficient when cells are used to generate human neural organoids or chimeras.
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From page 49... ...
For deidentified biological materials already collected and available in tissue banks, specific informed consent for use of cells to generate human neural organ
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Consent in Groups That Have Suffered Health Disparities and Discrimination Use of human cells to generate human neural organoids, transplants, and chimeras could elicit mistrust in such groups as African Americans that suffer health disparities, unequal treatment, and discrimination (IOM, 2003)
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From page 51... ...
. In that case, cancerous tissue was removed during clinical care of Henrietta Lacks, a Black woman, and given to researchers to create cell lines without telling the patient or family that this was being done.
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From page 52... ...
This sustained community engagement has enabled an important long-term study in a group whose medical care has suffered from a relative paucity of research on diseases that disproportionately afflict them. ISSUES SPECIFIC TO HUMAN NEURAL ORGANOIDS, TRANSPLANTS, AND CHIMERAS Ethical issues raised specifically by human neural organoids, transplants, and chimeras include (1)
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From page 53... ...
forcefully argued for the moral value of feelings of repugnance toward situations that violate the distinction between human beings and nonhuman animals and threaten human dignity: Revulsion is not an argument; and some of yesterday's repugnances are today calmly accepted though, one must add, not always for the better. In crucial cases, however, repugnance is the emotional expression of deep wisdom, beyond reason's power fully to articulate it.
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From page 54... ...
For some, the distinction leads to a strong elevation in the worth of humans over nonhuman animals, with a consequent decreased regard for animal welfare. In other faith traditions, by contrast, nonhuman animals were created by God on the same day as human beings and participate in the afterlife (Tlili, 2018)
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From page 55... ...
The committee was not asked to make recommendations on which views are most convincing; indeed, trying to do so would be fraught because positions often build from deeply held individual beliefs. Concerns Related to Potential Capacities of Chimeric Animals People concerned about nonhuman animals developing human-like attributes from any of a variety of ethical perspectives might believe that even the possibil 2 Charles Camosy, Fordham University, presentation to committee, October 30, 2020, virtual meeting.
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From page 56... ...
. In the specific case of neural transplantation and chimera research, the slippery slope concern is that if small increments in mental capacities develop in transplants or chimeras, there will be no logical point at which the research should be stopped, or it may not be possible later to institute policies to block research that could result in nonhuman animals with unacceptable human capabilities.
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From page 57... ...
These engineered stem cells could be used -- indeed, their use could be mandated -- for the generation of chimeras. Concerns about Animal Welfare and Rights Some perspectives on animal ethics hold that nonhuman animals have their own inherent value quite apart from the benefits humans can derive from them.
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From page 58... ...
According to this perspective, the researcher's obligation to provide appropriate living conditions is similar to the requirements of the animal welfare perspective described earlier in this section. In some cases, however, animal rights advocates might object to some research that would be permitted by a balancing of countervailing values described earlier -- for example, objecting to the creation of chimeric animals as violating their telos or nature.
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From page 59... ...
. Concerns about Consciousness and Enhanced Capacities As noted earlier, the possibility of generating consciousness, suffering, or markedly enhanced cognitive capacities in human neural organoids, transplants, or chimeras has generated ethical concerns.
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From page 60... ...
That discussion suggests that the development of consciousness would be extremely unlikely and perhaps impossible in the neural organoids currently being developed for research, but also notes the difficulty of defining consciousness and the practical impediments to assessing the possibility of enhanced consciousness in animals. The current failure to generate viable human-nonhuman chimeras renders consideration of their consciousness moot.
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From page 61... ...
Of note, high-level intellectual and cultural achievements, such as proving mathematical theorems, building computers, writing books, and composing operas, are unique to human beings, but are of little help in assessing higher functions in neural organoids and chimeric animals. Taken together, these considerations suggest that the most informative tests or observations may be those that can show some difference between chimeric and nonchimeric animals of the same species, rather than those that attempt to find "human-like" capacities in a nonhuman animal.
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From page 62... ...
Generating novel mental capacities in neural transplants and chimeras resembles this type of stewardship in some superficial respects, but differs in the methods used, the involvement of human cells, and the explicit focus on the brain. Concerns Related to the Use of Nonhuman Primates Although most neural cell transplants and chimeras currently use rats and mice as the host species, it is likely that some future studies will use nonhuman primates for this purpose.
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From page 63... ...
In fact, the committee heard about very few ethical concerns regarding current and near-term neural organoid research other than those detailed above. Because there are no animal hosts, there are no animal welfare concerns and no violations of the foundational cultural distinction between humans and nonhuman animals.
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From page 64... ...
Sixth, there are concerns about consciousness and enhanced capacities in research animals or neural organoids. Finally, there are concerns about the use of nonhuman primates in such research.
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