Kreitmair Karola
Department of Medical History and Bioethics, School of Medicine and Public Health, University of Wisconsin - Madison, Madison, Wisconsin, USA.
Camb Q Healthc Ethics. 2023 Mar 23:1-11. doi: 10.1017/S0963180123000063.
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 an alternative account of the correlation between moral status and consciousness, and consider the epistemic ramifications for research protections of this account.
人类大脑类器官具有意识的可能性，有时被视为决定这些实体所具有的道德地位的关键因素，进而也决定了这些实体应享有的研究保护措施。这种常识性观点与神经学和神经科学中的一种主流立场一致，即意识有程度之分。我的论文概述了这些观点，并论证了将意识程度与道德地位及研究保护措施相关联的这种观点为何是错误的。然后，我提出了一种关于道德地位与意识之间关联的替代解释，并探讨了这种解释对研究保护措施的认识论影响。
