The ethical landscape of human brain organoids and a mindful innovation framework

Human brain organoids can partly mimic the structure and function of human brains in vitro, thereby providing a platform for investigating health and disease in the human brain. However, human brain organoids require complex ethical considerations that pose challenges for standard ethical approaches owing to their increasing complexity, human mimicry and implementation in chimera models. In this Perspective, we outline the ethical landscape of human brain organoids, including sample procurement and informed consent, translational animal research, personalized medicine and transplantation, commercialization, moral status, regulatory policy, scarcity and prioritization, uncertainty, and responsible innovation. We then propose to view brain organoid research through a new lens of ‘mindful innovation’, that is, societally responsible and responsive innovation with respect to the scientific landscape and social, political and economic conditions. We introduce five core principles of this framework: exploration, contemplation, involvement, adaptation and demarcation, and we illustrate how a framework of mindful innovation may handle ethical challenges and chart an ethical pathway for brain organoid research. Human brain organoids can partly mimic features of the human brain. This Perspective discusses key ethical considerations in human brain organoid research and introduces an ethical framework of mindful innovation to conceptualize and guide ethical considerations of human brain organoid research.