Ethical, legal and social aspects of human cerebral organoids and their governance in Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States.

Human cerebral organoids (HCOs) are model systems that enable researchers to investigate the human brain in ways that had previously been impossible. The emergence of HCOs was accompanied by both expert and layperson discussions concerning the possibility of these novel entities developing sentience or consciousness. Such concerns are reflected in deliberations about how to handle and regulate their use. This perspective article resulted from an international and interdisciplinary research retreat "Ethical, Legal and Social Aspects of Human Cerebral Organoids and their Governance in Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States", which took place in Tübingen, Germany, in August 2022. The retreat focused on whether HCO research requires new ethical and regulatory approaches. It addressed epistemic issues around the detection and theorisation of consciousness, ethical concerns around moral status and research conduct, difficulties for legislation and guidelines managing these entities, and public engagement.

[Ethics-by-design and its relevance for biotechnologies]. / L'approche ethics-by-design et sa pertinence pour l'éthique des biotechnologies.

Ethics-by-design has been developed recently as an approach prompting developers of new technologies to take into consideration ethical issues at the stage of the design process. This approach is guided by the need to anticipate effectively ethical issues that will likely arise with emerging technologies: Embedding ethical considerations at the design stage is a strategy to mitigate early the potential pitfalls of fast-developing tools. At the European level, several guidelines and methodologies have already been proposed, especially in the field of artificial intelligence. This synthesis is a primer on ethics-by-design that sketches a discussion of its roots and principles. Beyond artificial intelligence, it raises also the issue of the extension of ethics-by-design to biotechnologies.

Title: L'approche ethics-by-design et sa pertinence pour l'éthique des biotechnologies. Abstract: L'approche ethics-by-design est proposée depuis peu aux développeurs de techniques pour s'assurer que leurs produits se conforment à un certain nombre de valeurs. Cette approche présente l'intérêt d'anticiper les retombées des nouvelles techniques et de proposer des étapes précises pour leur évaluation et leur conception, conformément à des normes éthiques. L'application de cette approche soulève des questions sur la nature des biotechnologies en tant qu'objets destinés à circuler dans la société. La réflexion bioéthique pourrait donc partiellement s'inspirer de cette approche.

Tojisha Research and Narrative Medicine: Contribution of a Japanese Experiment in the Investigation of Patients' Personal Experience.

Tojisha research is a methodology intended to help psychiatric patients through dialogue. It was introduced in the context of community care in Bethel House (Hokkaido, Japan) in the early 2000s and later spread to other parts of Japan as well as abroad because of its originality and apparent therapeutic success. It offers patients a framework to investigate their own problems, symptoms, and delusions and to build a discourse around them. In this paper, I present a short account of tojisha research and I put it in the context of current debates over the benefits and drawbacks of narrative medicine. I argue that there is an original conception of the self and of empowerment of patients in tojisha research compared to other models of narrative medicine. Finally, I mobilize these original aspects to address some rebuttals of narrative medicine.