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  1. The Case Against Organoid Consciousness.Tim Bayne & James Croxford - 2024 - Neuroethics 17 (1):1-15.
    Neural organoids are laboratory-generated entities that replicate certain structural and functional features of the human brain. Most neural organoids are disembodied—completely decoupled from sensory input and motor output. As such, questions about their potential capacity for consciousness are exceptionally difficult to answer. While not disputing the need for caution regarding certain neural organoid types, this paper appeals to two broad constraints on any adequate theory of consciousness—the first involving the dependence of consciousness on embodiment; the second involving the dependence of (...)
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  • Patentability of Brain Organoids derived from iPSC– A Legal Evaluation with Interdisciplinary Aspects.Hannes Wolff - 2024 - Neuroethics 17 (1):1-15.
    Brain Organoids in their current state of development are patentable. Future brain organoids may face some challenges in this regard, which I address in this contribution. Brain organoids unproblematically fulfil the general prerequisites of patentability set forth in Art. 3 (1) EU-Directive 98/44/ec (invention, novelty, inventive step and susceptibility of industrial application). Patentability is excluded if an invention makes use of human embryos or constitutes a stage of the human body in the individual phases of its formation and development. Both (...)
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  • Consciousness in a Rotor? Science and Ethics of Potentially Conscious Human Cerebral Organoids.Federico Zilio & Andrea Lavazza - 2023 - American Journal of Bioethics Neuroscience 14 (2):178-196.
    Human cerebral organoids are three-dimensional biological cultures grown in the laboratory to mimic as closely as possible the cellular composition, structure, and function of the corresponding organ, the brain. For now, cerebral organoids lack blood vessels and other characteristics of the human brain, but are also capable of having coordinated electrical activity. They have been usefully employed for the study of several diseases and the development of the nervous system in unprecedented ways. Research on human cerebral organoids is proceeding at (...)
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  • Induced Pluripotent Stem Cell-Based Systems for Personalising Epilepsy Treatment: Research Ethics Challenges and New Insights for the Ethics of Personalised Medicine.Mary Jean Walker, Jane Nielsen, Eliza Goddard, Alex Harris & Katrina Hutchison - 2022 - American Journal of Bioethics Neuroscience 13 (2):120-131.
    This paper examines potential ethical and legal issues arising during the research, develop- ment and clinical use of a proposed strategy in personalized medicine (PM): using human induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC)-derived tissue cultures as predictive models of individ- ual patients to inform treatment decisions. We focus on epilepsy treatment as a likely early application of this strategy, for which early-stage stage research is underway. In relation to the research process, we examine issues associated with biological samples; data; health; vulnerable (...)
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  • Non-Human Moral Status: Problems with Phenomenal Consciousness.Joshua Shepherd - 2023 - American Journal of Bioethics Neuroscience 14 (2):148-157.
    Consciousness-based approaches to non-human moral status maintain that consciousness is necessary for (some degree or level of) moral status. While these approaches are intuitive to many, in this paper I argue that the judgment that consciousness is necessary for moral status is not secure enough to guide policy regarding non-humans, that policies responsive to the moral status of non-humans should take seriously the possibility that psychological features independent of consciousness are sufficient for moral status. Further, I illustrate some practical consequences (...)
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  • Scientific and Ethical Uncertainties in Brain Organoid Research.Arun Sharma, Peter Zuk & Christopher Thomas Scott - 2021 - American Journal of Bioethics 21 (1):48-51.
    Hank Greely’s target article, “Human Brain Surrogates Research: The Onrushing Ethical Dilemma” reviews the manifold scientific and ethical questions surrounding models of human brains used i...
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  • Mapping the Ethical Issues of Brain Organoid Research and Application.Tsutomu Sawai, Yoshiyuki Hayashi, Takuya Niikawa, Joshua Shepherd, Elizabeth Thomas, Tsung-Ling Lee, Alexandre Erler, Momoko Watanabe & Hideya Sakaguchi - 2022 - American Journal of Bioethics Neuroscience 13 (2):81-94.
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  • Theoretical Neurobiology of Consciousness Applied to Human Cerebral Organoids.Matthew Owen, Zirui Huang, Catherine Duclos, Andrea Lavazza, Matteo Grasso & Anthony G. Hudetz - forthcoming - Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics:1-21.
    Organoids and specifically human cerebral organoids (HCOs) are one of the most relevant novelties in the field of biomedical research. Grown either from embryonic or induced pluripotent stem cells, HCOs can be used as in vitro three-dimensional models, mimicking the developmental process and organization of the developing human brain. Based on that, and despite their current limitations, it cannot be assumed that they will never at any stage of development manifest some rudimentary form of consciousness. In the absence of behavioral (...)
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  • Human Brain Organoids and Consciousness.Takuya Niikawa, Yoshiyuki Hayashi, Joshua Shepherd & Tsutomu Sawai - 2022 - Neuroethics 15 (1):1-16.
    This article proposes a methodological schema for engaging in a productive discussion of ethical issues regarding human brain organoids, which are three-dimensional cortical neural tissues created using human pluripotent stem cells. Although moral consideration of HBOs significantly involves the possibility that they have consciousness, there is no widely accepted procedure to determine whether HBOs are conscious. Given that this is the case, it has been argued that we should adopt a precautionary principle about consciousness according to which, if we are (...)
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  • Playing Brains: The Ethical Challenges Posed by Silicon Sentience and Hybrid Intelligence in DishBrain.Stephen R. Milford, David Shaw & Georg Starke - 2023 - Science and Engineering Ethics 29 (6):1-17.
    The convergence of human and artificial intelligence is currently receiving considerable scholarly attention. Much debate about the resulting _Hybrid Minds_ focuses on the integration of artificial intelligence into the human brain through intelligent brain-computer interfaces as they enter clinical use. In this contribution we discuss a complementary development: the integration of a functional in vitro network of human neurons into an _in silico_ computing environment. To do so, we draw on a recent experiment reporting the creation of silico-biological intelligence as (...)
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  • Human Brain Organoids: Why There Can Be Moral Concerns If They Grow Up in the Lab and Are Transplanted or Destroyed.Andrea Lavazza & Massimo Reichlin - 2023 - Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics 32 (4):582-596.
    Human brain organoids (HBOs) are three-dimensional biological entities grown in the laboratory in order to recapitulate the structure and functions of the adult human brain. They can be taken to be novel living entities for their specific features and uses. As a contribution to the ongoing discussion on the use of HBOs, the authors identify three sets of reasons for moral concern. The first set of reasons regards the potential emergence of sentience/consciousness in HBOs that would endow them with a (...)
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  • Cerebral organoids and consciousness: how far are we willing to go?Andrea Lavazza & Marcello Massimini - 2018 - Journal of Medical Ethics 44 (9):613-614.
    In his interesting commentary, Joshua Shepherd raises two points—one related to epistemology, the other to ethics—about our article on human cerebral organoids.1 2 From the epistemological standpoint, he calls into question the need for a theory of consciousness. A theory of consciousness, for him, is not necessary because of the lack of consensus about the very nature of consciousness. Shepherd suggests that ‘given widespread disagreement, applying a theory of consciousness may not be helpful when attempting to diagnose the presence of (...)
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  • Consciousness and the Ethics of Human Brain Organoid Research.Karola Kreitmair - 2023 - Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics 32 (4):518-528.
    The possibility of consciousness in human brain organoids is sometimes viewed as determinative in terms of the moral status such entities possess, and, in turn, in terms of the research protections such entities are due. This commonsense view aligns with a prominent stance in neurology and neuroscience that consciousness admits of degrees. My paper outlines these views and provides an argument for why this picture of correlating degrees of consciousness with moral status and research protections is mistaken. I then provide (...)
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  • The Donation of Human Biological Material for Brain Organoid Research: The Problems of Consciousness and Consent.Masanori Kataoka, Christopher Gyngell, Julian Savulescu & Tsutomu Sawai - 2024 - Science and Engineering Ethics 30 (1):1-15.
    Human brain organoids are three-dimensional masses of tissues derived from human stem cells that partially recapitulate the characteristics of the human brain. They have promising applications in many fields, from basic research to applied medicine. However, ethical concerns have been raised regarding the use of human brain organoids. These concerns primarily relate to the possibility that brain organoids may become conscious in the future. This possibility is associated with uncertainties about whether and in what sense brain organoids could have consciousness (...)
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  • Potential Consciousness of Human Cerebral Organoids: on Similarity-Based Views in Precautionary Discourse.Sarah Diner - 2023 - Neuroethics 16 (3):1-8.
    Advances in research on human cerebral organoids (HCOs) call for a critical review of current research policies. A challenge for the evaluation of necessary research regulations lies in the severe uncertainty about future trajectories the currently very rudimentary stages of neural cell cultures might take as the technology progresses. To gain insights into organotypic cultures, ethicists, legal scholars, and neuroscientists rely on resemblances to the human brain. They refer to similarities in structural or functional terms that have been established in (...)
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  • The Many Moral Matters of Organoid Models: A systematic review of reasons.Andrew J. Barnhart & Kris Dierickx - 2022 - Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy 25 (3):545-560.
    ObjectiveTo present the ethical issues, moral arguments, and reasons found in the ethical literature on organoid models.DesignIn this systematic review of reasons in ethical literature, we selected sources based on predefined criteria: The publication mentions moral reasons or arguments directly relating to the creation and/or use of organoid models in biomedical research; These moral reasons and arguments are significantly addressed, not as mere passing mentions, or comprise a large portion of the body of work; The publication is peer-reviewed and published (...)
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  • Rebutting the Ethical Considerations regarding Consciousness in Human Cerebral Organoids: Challenging the Premature Assumptions.Aníbal M. Astobiza - 2023 - American Journal of Bioethics Neuroscience 14 (2):207-210.
    In their latest target article, Zilio and Lavazza (2023) major claim is that research on human cerebral organoids (HCOs) must take into account whether they can acquire sentience or a primitive for...
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  • Testing the Correlates of Consciousness in Brain Organoids: How Do We Know and What Do We Do?Rachel A. Ankeny & Ernst Wolvetang - 2021 - American Journal of Bioethics 21 (1):51-53.
    What consciousness exactly is remains an unsettled issue among both philosophers and biologists. Three aspects of consciousness are generally recognized: awareness consciousness (through connection...
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