Human Cerebral Organoids: Evolving Entities and Their Moral Status

In this chapter, I address the moral status of human cerebral organoids (HCOs). HCOs are derived from stem cells and grown in a dish using new biomedical technologies, with the aim of modeling and understanding brain development and neurological disorders. Thanks to the rapid progress of research, in 10 years, we have gone from the first in vitro model used to study microcephaly to organoids showing complex coordinated electrical activity between neurons. This suggests that HCOs may develop some form of consciousness in the future. It is therefore reasonable to assume that conscious cerebral organoids endowed with sentience should be accorded moral status with the associated rights, which could result in their protection from destructive experiments. After introducing the general topic of moral status in relation to HCOs, I review the various ethical proposals concerning cerebral organoids that have been put forward so far. Next, I take up some of my own proposals on the subject and go a step further by suggesting that conscious HCOs could be classified as special evolving entities, without being assimilated to other living beings. Based on this proposal, I hypothesize some general rules for the ethical protection of human brain organoids endowed with consciousness.