C B m E & U

Brains in Jars with Insoo Hyun

Centre for Biomedical Ethics Season 3 Episode 5

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Could a blob of cells in a petri dish one day think? Feel? Have rights? In this episode, Professor Insoo Hyun (Harvard Medical School, one of the world's leading experts on the ethics of stem cell and organoid research, joins Sinead and James to discuss what organoids are, why scientists are so excited about them, and why bioethicists are watching very closely. Insoo explains who has rights over donated cells that end up being brain models, whether organoids can have moral status, and what happens when an organoid has no donor at all — or many donors at once. Would you want a copy of your brain in a jar? 

Remember people, be savvy!