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Overview Participants Products
A Project of the Program in Cell Engineering, Ethics, and Public Policy (PCEEPP)
Supported by a grant from the Greenwall Foundation
As a continuation of our interdisciplinary approach to ethical and policy issues in stem cell research, we have convened a group of scientists, philosophers, physicians, and lawyers to consider the scientific and moral implications of stem cell research with non-human primates. This expert panel, supported by the PCEEPP core faculty and staff, will discuss the implications of experiments that might be conducted transplanting human stem cells or neural progenitors into developing primate brains.
Some of the key scientific questions that will be addressed will include:
1) Could the introduction of human cells into the brains of non-human primates cause significant physical or biochemical changes that make the brain more human-like? Would this depend upon the stage of development of the animal or the type of cells introduced?
2) How could changes in the structure or function of the brain be detected?
3) What is the relationship between potentially chimeric physical structures in the brain and animal cognition, emotion, or behavior?
4) How could changes in animal cognition, emotion, or behavior be assessed? By what criteria could the degree of “human-like” changes be evaluated?
Some of the difficult philosophical and policy questions include:
1) Would it be morally problematic to create a chimeric animal that had a significant degree of “human-like” consciousness, cognition, or emotion? Would there be a threshold of acceptability, and if so, what scientific or moral distinction would determine the boundary?
2) If brain chimerism is deemed to be problematic, should this line of experimentation be regulated or prohibited and alternative scientific investigations designed?
3) If some degree of human/non-human primate brain chimerism is acceptable, should the care and treatment of these animals receive special consideration on moral grounds?
4) Would there be legal considerations or protections that pertain to chimeric animals, as distinct from other animals?
Two plenary sessions will be convened in order to discuss these scientific and philosophical questions. The final product of the working group will be a published paper outlining the group’s deliberations and providing policy recommendations.
Non-Hopkins Members
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Tom L. Beauchamp, Ph.D.
Professor of Philosophy, Georgetown University; Senior Research Scholar, Kennedy Institute of Ethics, Georgetown University
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Dorothy L. Cheney, Ph.D.
Professor of Biology, University of Pennsylvania
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Joseph T. Coyle, M.D.
Eben S. Draper Professor of Psychiatry and Neuroscience, Harvard University Medical School
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Terrence W. Deacon, Ph.D.
Professor of Biological Anthropology and Linguistics, University of California at Berkeley
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Daniel C. Dennett, Ph.D.
University Professor and Austin B. Fletcher Professor of Philosophy, Tufts University;
Director, Center for Cognitive Studies, Tufts University
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Owen Flanagan, Ph.D.
James B. Duke Professor of Philosophy, Professor of Experimental Psychology, and Professor of Neurobiology, Duke University
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Henry T. Greely, J.D.
C. Wendell and Edith M. Carlsmith Professor of Law, Stanford University Law School; Professor of Genetics, Stanford University
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Earl K. Miller, Ph.D.
Picower Professor of Neuroscience, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Associate Director, Picower Center for Learning and Memory, Massachusetts Institute or Technology
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Barbara B. Smuts, Ph.D.
Professor of Biopsychology, University of Michigan
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Hopkins Members
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Dawn Mueller Agnew, Ph.D., cPNP
Pediatric Nurse Practitioner, Sinai Hospital; Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Department of Pathology, Johns Hopkins University
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Alison S. Bateman-House, M.A.
Research Program Coordinator, The Phoebe R. Berman Bioethics Institute
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Hilary Bok, Ph.D.
Henry R. Luce Professor of Bioethics and Moral and Political Theory; Core Faculty, The Phoebe R. Berman Bioethics Institute and Department of Philosophy
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Peter J. Donovan, Ph.D.
Visiting Associate Professor, Department of Gynecology-Obstetrics, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
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Ruth R. Faden, Ph.D., M.P.H.
Philip Franklin Wagley Professor of Biomedical Ethics;
Executive Director, The Phoebe R. Berman Bioethics Institute
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Senayt Getachew
Administrative Assistant, The Phoebe R. Berman Bioethics Institute
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Kathryn E. Schill, M.A.
Research Program Coordinator, The Phoebe R. Berman Bioethics Institute
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Andrew Siegel, Ph.D., J.D.
Assistant Professor of Gynecology and Obstetrics, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine;
Associate Director of Academic Programs, Berman Bioethics Institute
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Ariel Williams, B.A.
Research Intern, Berman Bioethics Institute
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