Uehiro Center for Practical Ethics, University of Oxford, Oxford, OX1 1PT, UK.
Department of Media, Cognition and Communication, University of Copenhagen, DK-2300, Copenhagen S, Denmark.
BMC Med Ethics. 2019 Jan 25;20(1):10. doi: 10.1186/s12910-019-0345-2.
Animal models of human diseases are often used in biomedical research in place of human subjects. However, results obtained by animal models may fail to hold true for humans. One way of addressing this problem is to make animal models more similar to humans by placing human tissue into animal models, rendering them chimeric. Since technical and ethical limitations make neurological disorders difficult to study in humans, chimeric models with human neural tissue could help advance our understanding of neuropathophysiology.
In this article, we examine whether the introduction of human neural tissue and any consequent cognitive change is relevant to the way we ought to treat chimeras. We argue that changes in cognitive abilities are morally relevant to the extent that they increase the capacities that affect the moral status of any entity, including awareness, autonomy, and sociability. We posit that no being, regardless of species, should be treated in a way that is incommensurate with its moral status. Finally, we propose a framework that can be used to guide ethical assessment of research involving chimeras with advanced cognitive capacities.
We advance this framework as a useful tool for bringing relevant considerations to the forefront for those considering the ethical merit of proposed chimeric research. In doing so, we examine concepts relevant to the question of how any entity may be treated, including moral status, dignity, and capacities.
在生物医学研究中，常常用人类疾病的动物模型来替代人类作为研究对象。然而，动物模型的研究结果可能与人类实际情况不符。解决这一问题的方法之一是通过将人类组织植入动物模型，使其成为嵌合体，从而使动物模型更接近人类。由于技术和伦理限制，使神经紊乱疾病难以在人类中进行研究，因此具有人类神经组织的嵌合体模型可能有助于推进我们对神经病理生理学的理解。
本文探讨了引入人类神经组织和由此引起的认知变化是否与我们对待嵌合体的方式有关。我们认为，认知能力的变化与道德相关，因为它们增加了影响任何实体（包括意识、自主性和社会性）的道德地位的能力。我们假设，无论物种如何，任何生物都不应因其道德地位而受到不适当的对待。最后，我们提出了一个框架，可以用来指导涉及具有高级认知能力的嵌合体的研究的伦理评估。
我们提出了这个框架，作为一种有用的工具，可以将相关的考虑因素摆在那些考虑拟议的嵌合体研究的伦理价值的人面前。在这样做的过程中，我们考察了与如何对待任何实体相关的概念，包括道德地位、尊严和能力。
