Human-Animal Chimeras and Hybrids: An Ethical Paradox behind Moral Confusion?

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Authors

  • Dietmar Hübner

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Details

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)187-210
Number of pages24
JournalJournal of Medicine and Philosophy (United Kingdom)
Volume43
Issue number2
Early online date13 Mar 2018
Publication statusPublished - Apr 2018

Abstract

The prospect of creating and using human-animal chimeras and hybrids (HACHs) that are significantly human-like in their composition, phenotype, cognition, or behavior meets with divergent moral judgments: On the one side, it is claimed that such beings might be candidates for human-analogous rights to protection and care; on the other side, it is supposed that their existence might disturb fundamental natural and social orders. This paper tries to show that both positions are paradoxically intertwined: They rely on two kinds of species arguments, "individual species arguments" and "group species arguments," which formulate opposing demands but are conceptually interdependent. As a consequence, the existence of HACHs may challenge exactly those normative standards on which the protection of HACHs may eventually be based. This ethical paradox could constitute the ultimate source of the "moral confusion" that some authors have suspected HACHs to provoke.

Keywords

    Chimeras, Ethical Paradox, Human-animal mixtures, hybrids, moral confusion, species arguments

ASJC Scopus subject areas

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Human-Animal Chimeras and Hybrids: An Ethical Paradox behind Moral Confusion? / Hübner, Dietmar.
In: Journal of Medicine and Philosophy (United Kingdom), Vol. 43, No. 2, 04.2018, p. 187-210.

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Research › peer review

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