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Re:Scientists grow bigger monkey brains using human genes, r... by pm90 on Sunday November 15, 2020 @09:05PM (#25107159)
Well, we do need to classify sentience... it’s not a Boolean yes or no. I agree with you that modern factory farming is disgustingly inhumane. But creating and slaughtering a species that can learn at the same rate as humans is uncomfortably close to slaughtering human babies, which is a line that perhaps all of society can agree cannot be crossed.
Re:Scientists grow bigger monkey brains using human genes, r... by XorNot on Sunday November 15, 2020 @10:45PM (#25107727)
Terminating a pregnancy at 100 days is nowhere near "slaughtering babies".

If there's a moral issue here, it's about the experience we put the monkey mothers through to conduct this experiment since they cannot reasonably give consent for it and are at a sentience level where this is a reasonable concern.

From reading the article, given the value of this research, I think the concerns were adequately addressed - namely, the fetus was not brought to term, it was removed via C-section, the monkeys seem to have been adequately cared for emotionally, and it's a reasonable statement that simian miscarriage is a concept they would understand to some degree and thus not be overly distressed by the process. These were marmosets, not chimps so this is a reasonable level of precaution due their sapience level.