neural chimeras broach new ethical territory. National academies of science, engineering and medicine flagged issues such as the possibility of endowing animals with new cognitive abilities or human disease symptoms that could be distressing. The committee advised that although current regulation of stem cell and animal research was adequate, the field should be kept under close surveillance. Researchers are starting to consider going beyond transplanting a few isolated cells to creating chimeric animal with human brain regions.
The development of brain chimaeras – made up of human and animal neurons – is an area of research that has hugely expanded in the past five years. Proponents say that these systems are yielding important insights into health and disease, but others say the chimeras represent an ethical grey zone, because of the potential to blur the line between humans and other animals, or to recapitulate human-like cognition in an animal.
This is an audio version of our Feature: Hybrid brains: the ethics of transplanting human neurons into animals
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