From Michael Phillips
Leaving the brain out of the virtual human makes as much sense as leaving
out the liver or the heart
(16 June, p 26).
Researchers who ignore the role of
the central nervous system will find out to their cost that their predictions
are inaccurate. Pharmacologists learned this lesson many years ago when they
discovered that animals without their brains react differently to drugs.
In addition, the response of a virtual human to a new drug will be unreliable
if it is not programmed to experience fear, anxiety and pain. So the virtual
human must have a brain as well as a body if scientists and regulatory agencies
are to take its responses seriously.
Of course, this raises an interesting new ethical question: is it wrong to
inflict virtual pain on a virtual human if it virtually feels it?
Fort Lee, New Jersey
