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Moral Permissibility of Transplantation of Human Brain Organoids into Animals

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Brain Organoids in Research and Therapy

Part of the book series: Advances in Neuroethics ((AIN))

Abstract

One way to generate chimeric animals for human disease modeling involves the transplantation of human brain organoids into the brains of common nonhuman laboratory species. The moral permissibility of this research method is dependent on the reasons for conducting human-to-animal chimera research more generally and the oversight process that must be in place for this variant of animal research. As with any research involving highly modified animals, brain organoid transplantation into animal hosts must focus on tractable ethical criteria involving scientific justification, incremental experimentation, and attention to animal welfare requirements.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Dworkin (1970) and Frankfurt (1971).

  2. 2.

    Hyun (2001).

  3. 3.

    Locke (1694/1975), 2.27.9.

  4. 4.

    Behringer (2007).

  5. 5.

    Halme and Kessler (2006).

  6. 6.

    Streiffer (2005).

  7. 7.

    Crane et al. (2019).

  8. 8.

    Han et al. (2013)

  9. 9.

    Goldman et al. (2015).

  10. 10.

    Windrem et al. (2014).

  11. 11.

    Windrem et al. (2017).

  12. 12.

    Mansour et al. (2018).

  13. 13.

    Hyun et al. (2021) and ISSCR (2021).

  14. 14.

    Hyun (2016).

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Bioethics, Case Western Reserve University, School of Medicine, Cleveland, OH, USA

    Insoo Hyun

  2. Center for Bioethics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA

    Insoo Hyun

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  1. Insoo Hyun
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Correspondence to Insoo Hyun .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Law, University of Passau, Passau, Germany

    Hans-Georg Dederer

  2. Faculty of Law, University of Passau, Passau, Germany

    David Hamburger

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Hyun, I. (2022). Moral Permissibility of Transplantation of Human Brain Organoids into Animals. In: Dederer, HG., Hamburger, D. (eds) Brain Organoids in Research and Therapy. Advances in Neuroethics. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-97641-5_8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-97641-5_8

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-97640-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-97641-5

  • eBook Packages: MedicineMedicine (R0)

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