Disembodied brains: understanding our intuitions on neuro-chimeras and human-brain organoids

In: Oxford scholarship online

Abstract

Recent new technologies have brought the realm of science fiction to reality. The development of human-animal neuro-chimeras, which are animals with some component of a human brain, plays into society's long-standing fascination with the crossover between humans and animals. In the same way, the development of human brain organoids - small parts of a human brain grown from harvested human cells - feeds our fear and fascination of disembodied brains. The general reaction to these technologies is shock or disgust. This book closely examines the public's response to such new scientific advances: the questions they raise about the biological essence of personhood, the ethics of growing and mixing human-animal parts, and the fears of dystopian misuse that might arise from the development of such technologies.