People Are Horrified by Lab-Grown Human Brains

Earlier this year, John Hopkins University scientists revealed that they had created something astonishing: a miniature whole human brain.

Specifically, it was a type of organoid, a small mass of human tissue grown from stem cells meant to mimic the function of our organs — and, most importantly, serve as a test bed to study diseases and new drugs for treatment.

The existence of this lab-grown brain and other similar organoids have gotten some scientists speculating that these little walnuts may become conscious in the future — essentially a soupçon of human sentience in a petri dish — which, of course, carries immense ethical implications and icks a lot of people out.

That was borne out by a recent poll conducted by Live Science, in which 657 readers responded to the question: “If brai