"Three Stanford biologists and ethicists argue for the use of so-called bodyoids in science and medicine. This infelicitous term refers to hypothetical modified human bodies created from stem cells - bodies that have been genetically altered so that they lack brains, and thus, presumably, are without consciousness. The authors acknowledge
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Strictly speaking, artificial uteruses are not necessary for the development of bodyoids. Such a reprogrammed embryo could theoretically be created in a lab and implanted in a woman’s uterus, as is done with IVF. But the notion that an entity regarded as subhuman should be born from a human mother seems too gruesome even for these bioethical pioneers to contemplate.
The authors admit that many will find the prospect of bodyoids disturbing, but they argue that a “potentially unlimited source” of “spare” human bodies will be immensely useful and should be pursued.
We could, for example, harvest the organs of these presumably nonsentient humans and conduct experiments on them in order to test drugs and other medical interventions.
The authors even suggest that it would be more ethical to do drug testing on humans who cannot feel pain, because they lack nervous systems, than on animals that can feel pain. There are other potential benefits for animal species as well, they aver, since we could use animal bodyoids to avoid causing pain and suffering in the cows and pigs we slaughter for food.
Human bodyoids are not entirely within the realm of science fiction. Scientists have recently produced “embryoids,” or “synthetic embryos,” from reprogrammed stem cells, without the use of sperm and eggs. Embryoids are living entities that seem to develop as human embryos do but that presumably lack the capacity for full human development.
Bodyoids are human bodies. Or rather, human-like bodies. But not human in any morally relevant sense - they lack brains, after all. But sufficiently human that we can harvest their organs for transplant and conduct experiments on them to see how “real” humans would respond to drugs.
The precise name for such a creature is zombie. The concept has roots in Haitian folklore, where the term is zonbi, referring to a person who has been brought back from the dead through magical means to serve as a mindless slave. The problem with creating zombies, our stories suggest, is that they always come back to bite us. Creating them diminishes our humanity.
The concept of brain death - defined as total cessation of all brain function - arguably paved the way for advocates of the creation and exploitation of bodyoids. As the authors of the article point out, “Recently we have even begun using for experiments the ‘animated cadavers’ of people who have been declared legally dead, who have lost all brain function but whose other organs continue to function with mechanical assistance.” What are we to make of the term “animated cadaver,” which seems to express a manifest contradiction?
Advocates for the brain-death criterion argue that death is the disintegration of the unified organism, and the brain is responsible for maintaining organismic unity. Liberal bioethicists also argue that,
without consciousness, though there may be a living human being, there is no morally or legally relevant “personhood.”
Human bodyoids are not entirely within the realm of science fiction. Scientists have recently produced “embryoids,” or “synthetic embryos,” from reprogrammed stem cells, without the use of sperm and eggs. Embryoids are living entities that seem to develop as human embryos do but that presumably lack the capacity for full human development.
Bodyoids are human bodies. Or rather, human-like bodies. But not human in any morally relevant sense - they lack brains, after all. But sufficiently human that we can harvest their organs for transplant and conduct experiments on them to see how “real” humans would respond to drugs.
The precise name for such a creature is zombie. The concept has roots in Haitian folklore, where the term is zonbi, referring to a person who has been brought back from the dead through magical means to serve as a mindless slave. The problem with creating zombies, our stories suggest, is that they always come back to bite us. Creating them diminishes our humanity.
The concept of brain death - defined as total cessation of all brain function - arguably paved the way for advocates of the creation and exploitation of bodyoids. As the authors of the article point out, “Recently we have even begun using for experiments the ‘animated cadavers’ of people who have been declared legally dead, who have lost all brain function but whose other organs continue to function with mechanical assistance.” What are we to make of the term “animated cadaver,” which seems to express a manifest contradiction?
Advocates for the brain-death criterion argue that death is the disintegration of the unified organism, and the brain is responsible for maintaining organismic unity. Liberal bioethicists also argue that,
But these arguments do not withstand scrutiny. The brain modulates the coordinated activity of the other organs; it does not create that coordinated activity. That is accomplished by the organic formal unity of the body as a whole—which modern science, with its reductionistic analysis of the body into component parts, fails to discern.
Although a brain-dead patient has no functional electrical activity of the brain, the patient continues, with the help of machines, to breathe and to circulate blood.
A bodyoid’s value for science and medicine lies precisely in what it would be, which is not a zombie, not a dead person, not a mannequin that mimics the human form. It would be a profoundly disabled human being, designed and created to be profoundly disabled—a vulnerable human being so totally defenseless and voiceless that it could be exploited with impunity.
If this is the case, we would endorse this macabre project only if we ourselves had become, so to speak, moral zombies."
Although a brain-dead patient has no functional electrical activity of the brain, the patient continues, with the help of machines, to breathe and to circulate blood.
A bodyoid’s value for science and medicine lies precisely in what it would be, which is not a zombie, not a dead person, not a mannequin that mimics the human form. It would be a profoundly disabled human being, designed and created to be profoundly disabled—a vulnerable human being so totally defenseless and voiceless that it could be exploited with impunity.
If this is the case, we would endorse this macabre project only if we ourselves had become, so to speak, moral zombies."
ZeroHedge
