Regulating research in novel research platforms at the edges of death

Abstract: In recent years some neuroscientists have begun using perfused, intact and metabolically-functioning ex-vivo brains (from both pigs and human beings) to do research on drugs for brain-diseases, on brain imaging, and on stroke. At the same time, transplant researchers have been testing stem-cell manufactured organs in the bodies of recently-deceased human beings. Disembodied brains and dead bodies are two very different kinds of novel research platforms, but they nonetheless raise certain parallel legal and ethical questions about the definition of death, and about who should have responsibility for "peri-mortem" research oversight.