Ethical Issues and Resolutions in Human-animal Chimera Research / 中国医学伦理学

ABSTRACT

Human-animal chimera technology is increasingly applied to large animals. It is highly possible to cultivate human organs in pigs for transplantation in the future. Chimeric animals contain more and more human materials and are present in their brains and reproductive systems, which may humanize them and give them a higher moral status and even dignity. It raises an important ethical question: should such chimeric animals be created? If so, how they should be treated. It is not convincing to refute the research of human-animal chimera with the arguments of destroying natural order, unnatural and moral chaos. But the non-identity view holds that scientific research makes the lives of chimeric animals more valuable and that they are not actually harmed because their only other options do not exist. The answers to these ethical questions can resolve the ethical risks arising from the research of human-animal chimera.