The Many Moral Matters of Organoid Models: A systematic review of reasons

Abstract

Objective: To present the ethical issues, moral arguments, and reasons found in the ethical literature on organoid models.

Design: In this systematic review of reasons in ethical literature, we selected sources based on predefined criteria: (1) The publication mentions moral reasons or arguments directly relating to the creation and/or use of organoid models in biomedical research; (2) These moral reasons and arguments are significantly addressed, not as mere passing mentions, or comprise a large portion of the body of work; (3) The publication is peer-reviewed and published in an academic article, book, national-level report, working paper, or Ph.D. thesis; (4) The publications collected are in English.

Analysis: Each article was read in-depth for identifiable moral reasons, arguments, and concerns. These were then inductively classified and synthesized to create broader categories of reasons, and eventually an overarching conceptual scheme was created.

Results: A total of twenty-three sources were included and analyzed out of an initial 266 collected sources. Five themes of ethical issues and arguments were found: Animal Experimentation; Clinical Applications and Experiments; Commercialization and Consent; Organoid Ontology and Moral Status; and Research Ethics and Research Integrity. These themes are then further broken down into sub-themes and topics. Given the extensive nature of the topics found, we will focus on describing the topics that comprised of more in-depth reasons and arguments rather than few, passing mentions or concerns.

Conclusions: The ethics of organoids requires further deliberation in multiple areas, as much of the discussions are not presented as in-depth arguments. Such sentiments are also echoed throughout the organoid ethics literature.

Keywords: Ethics; Literature; Organoids; Reasons; Systematic review.