Living brain tissue experiments raise new kinds of ethical questions

An ethicist describes the quandaries raised by working with tissue involved in our awareness

Cutting up live human brain tissue

At the Allen Institute for Brain Science in Seattle, scientists prepare a piece of still-living brain tissue that was just removed during a surgery.

Molly Telfer

SEATTLE — Live bits of brain look like any other piece of meat —  pinkish, solid chunks of neural tissue.