Send in the clones: Scientists suggest creating non-thinking human ‘bodyoids’ to provide organs for transplant
It’s one thing to see a lab full of nonthinking human bodies created by some “mad scientist” on a late-night movie; it’s another to consider the plan actually being reality.
But that’s just what several writers of an article at Technology Review have proposed.
A report at the Christian Institute bluntly explained, “Academics at Stanford University have proposed the creation of ‘brain-dead humans’ in order to harvest their organs for transplant and research.”
The authors at Technology Review are Carsten T. Charlesworth, Henry T. Greely, and Hiromitsu Nakauchi, and they claim making “bodyoids” now can happen, scientifically, and even could be accomplished “without crossing most people’s ethical lines.”
The benefits they claim? An end to a shortage of organs for donation and no more need to do testing on animals to produce treatments.
“Although it may seem like science fiction, recent technological progress has pushed this concept into the realm of plausibility,” they claim, even while conceding, “It may be disturbing to characterize human bodies in such commodifying terms, but the unavoidable reality is that human biological materials are an essential commodity in medicine.”
And while the idea is “grotesque or appalling” to many, they claim it’s not just scientifically possible, it’s plausible enough to justify discussing the technical aspects and the ethics involved.
Peter J. Colosi, associate professor of philosophy at Salve Regina University, said, “You, as the person who you are, exist even when you are not conscious, and this means that other human beings who are not conscious could also do that.”
And Heidi Klessig, author of The Brain Death Fallacy, described the concept “unconscionable” and called for an end to such “morally abhorrent attempts to purposely bioengineer neurologically impaired human clones as a source of ‘spare parts.'”
At Technology Review, the trio wrote, “Recent advances in biotechnology now provide a pathway to producing living human bodies without the neural components that allow us to think, be aware, or feel pain. Many will find this possibility disturbing, but if researchers and policymakers can find a way to pull these technologies together, we may one day be able to create ‘spare’ bodies, both human and nonhuman.”
They explained, “Pluripotent stem cells, one of the earliest cell types to form during development, can give rise to every type of cell in the adult body. Recently, researchers have used these stem cells to create structures that seem to mimic the early development of actual human embryos. At the same time, artificial uterus technology is rapidly advancing, and other pathways may be opening to allow for the development of fetuses outside of the body.
“Such technologies, together with established genetic techniques to inhibit brain development, make it possible to envision the creation of ‘bodyoids’—a potentially unlimited source of human bodies, developed entirely outside of a human body from stem cells, that lack sentience or the ability to feel pain.”
They admit there are unknowns.
“We do not know whether the embryo models recently created from stem cells could give rise to living people or, thus far, even to living mice. We do not know when, or whether, an effective technique will be found for successfully gestating human bodies entirely outside a person. We cannot be sure whether such bodyoids can survive without ever having developed brains or the parts of brains associated with consciousness, or whether they would still serve as accurate models for living people without those brain functions.”
And it might not be practical.
They claim the “bodyoids” would be like research cadavers, not being “legally, a living human being.”
A report at LifeSiteNews said, “The article is clearly written in the spirit of the ends justifying the means. In their call for action, the authors conclude, ‘Caution is warranted, but so is bold vision; the opportunity is too important to ignore.’
“On the contrary, the value of every human being is what is too important to ignore. We value and protect every person because they are made in the image of God, regardless of the way they were brought into the world. Using unconscious people as research subjects is wrong, both in the case of brain-injured people declared ‘legally dead’ (under the logical fallacy of brain death), and also with this new proposal for bioengineering human clones.”