TY - CHAP

T1 - Ethical considerations in crossing the xenobarrier

AU - Mann, Sebastian Porsdam

AU - Sun, Rosa

AU - Hermerén, Göran

PY - 2019

Y1 - 2019

N2 - Chimeras have been an important part of animal research for decades. Yet crossing the species barrier has always been seen as potentially morally problematic. In recent years, advances in chimeric research and the attendant possibilities—organ xenotransplantation, cognitive enhancement, and others—have given rise to further ethical concern. This contribution surveys the main ethical questions that have been discussed in the literature. We examine two arguments—from the order of nature and from human dignity—which aim to show that chimerization is inherently wrong. Finding the first untenable and the second largely inapplicable, we then turn to two unconvincing arguments designed to show that chimerization must necessarily lead to negative outcomes. Having thus found that no blanket statements can be made on the ethics of chimerization, we examine two important parameters relevant to the ethical evaluation of proposed chimeric research: The argument from moral status and from risk.

AB - Chimeras have been an important part of animal research for decades. Yet crossing the species barrier has always been seen as potentially morally problematic. In recent years, advances in chimeric research and the attendant possibilities—organ xenotransplantation, cognitive enhancement, and others—have given rise to further ethical concern. This contribution surveys the main ethical questions that have been discussed in the literature. We examine two arguments—from the order of nature and from human dignity—which aim to show that chimerization is inherently wrong. Finding the first untenable and the second largely inapplicable, we then turn to two unconvincing arguments designed to show that chimerization must necessarily lead to negative outcomes. Having thus found that no blanket statements can be made on the ethics of chimerization, we examine two important parameters relevant to the ethical evaluation of proposed chimeric research: The argument from moral status and from risk.

KW - Chimera

KW - Chimeric ethics

KW - Framework

KW - Moral

KW - Xenobarrier

UR - https://www.mendeley.com/catalogue/c250f94e-a0dd-37b2-abf4-44e15ba8f260/

U2 - 10.1007/978-1-4939-9524-0_12

DO - 10.1007/978-1-4939-9524-0_12

M3 - Bidrag til bog/antologi

C2 - 31175653

T3 - Methods in Molecular Biology

SP - 175

EP - 193

BT - Methods in Molecular Biology

PB - Humana Press

ER -