A debate has been stirred by news that neuroscientists have stimulated activity in the brain of pigs hours after their heads were removed.
The discovery performed at the Yale University School of Medicine, USA, has also highlighted potential limitations in the current regulations for animals used in research as argued in an article in Nature.
In an article in National Geographic, Khara Ramos, of the U.S. National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, asked if “the development and application of new neuro-technologies may require us to examine ethical standards, and for those standards to evolve”.
In The Guardian, ethical questions such as ‘How do we delimit consciousness in a brain removed from the body?’; ‘Is it possible to speak about consciousness in an isolated brain?’ were also raised.