Drug testing on brains hovering between life and death

I can see this going the same way as the abortion debate. I know what I, personally, think about this (once I’m dead, I’m dead, and no amount of electrical stimulation is going to reanimate my consciousness) but I think there will be significant pushback from people who have perhaps read a little too much Mary Shelley. Just a day ago, the brain was in a living person. Now, hours after its owner died, it sits on a cart draped in tubes that quiver as they pump liters of blood substitute and other fluids through the organ, supplying oxygen and removing waste. With most of its key functions intact but its electrical activity quenched by anesthesia, the brain hovers between life and death. As it metabolizes experimental drugs, sensors record its reactions, capturing hundreds of data points on its cells, proteins, and physiology. Then, after 24 hours in this state, it will be sliced into hundreds of pieces for more detailed study. The brain is one of more than 700 that the 5-year-old…