What Is to Be Done?

Abstract

Abstract This chapter begins by summarizing the conclusions of the empirical study of the public’s intuitions about human brain organoids and neuro-chimeric animals. It then turns to the question of why humanistic scholars have been so concerned with foundational distinctions like the human-animal distinction. The answer is that scholars think that removing the distinction will teach the public a new definition of what a human is, which will have pernicious effects on how we treat each other. The book’s findings suggest that these negative effects are possible but avoidable. The chapter finishes with an analysis of how to place socially powerful barriers on the slippery slope between consensually ethical medical uses of these technologies and the dystopian bottoms of each slope that all would want to avoid.