Key Points:
- A report looks at ethics of crossing species boundaries by inserting human cells into nonhuman animals.
- Advances in human stem cell science enable scientists to insert human cells more precisely into nonhuman animals, creating “chimeric” animals.
- The research brings up ethical concerns as to whether the moral status of nonhuman animals is altered by the insertion of human stem cells.
A new report released on the ethics of crossing species boundaries by inserting human cells into nonhuman animals makes recommendations to better clarify the ethical issues and to improve oversight of this type of research, which continues to be surrounded by debate.
The report published in The Hasting Center was developed by an interdisciplinary team consisting of Josephine Johnston and Karen Maschke, researchers at The Hastings Center, and Insoo Hyun, director of the Center for Life Sciences at the Museum of Life Sciences.
Advancements in human stem cell science and gene editing now enables scientists to insert human cells more extensively into nonhuman animals, creating “chimeric” animals, embryos, and other organisms that contain a mix of human and nonhuman cells.
Researchers say they hope this work will yield enormous benefits, including better models of human disease, inexpensive sources of human eggs and embryos for research, and better sources of tissues and organs for human transplant.
This type of research brings up ethical concerns and raises questions such as whether the moral status of nonhuman animals is altered by the insertion of human stem cells; if these studies should be subject to additional prohibitions or oversight, and whether this kind of research should be done at all.
Points in the report include:
- Animal welfare is a primary ethical issue and should be a focus of ethical and policy analysis as well as the governance and oversight of chimeric research.
- Chimeric studies raise the possibility of unique or novel harms resulting from the insertion and development of human stem cells in nonhuman animals.
- Scientists, journalists, bioethicists, and others writing about chimeric research should use precise and accessible language that clarify the ethical issues at stake.