Draft of "Charter for the Welfare of Brain Organoids" Ver.1.003

This document presents a citizen-led draft charter for the welfare of brain organoids, designed to sidestep the intractable debate over human consciousness. Current ethical frameworks often stall on whether cultured human brain cells possess subjective experiences. To break this impasse, this framework proposes a pragmatic alternative: a graduated system based on researchers' and authors' duties of care, scaling with the organoids' scientific and developmental stages and structural complexity rather than unprovable mental states. By shifting the focus from individual rights to researchers' mindful care and mandating transparency in scientific publications, this charter offers a sustainable synthesis that balances proactive ethical protection with the advancement of biomedical research. Sidestepping the "Consciousness" Debate/This Charter asserts: "Consideration is warranted whenever human-derived brain cells are used, regardless of the presence or absence of consciousness." "Ethical Status" Instead of "Legal Rights"/The Charter intentionally avoids the loaded term "rights" in favor of "inherent ethical status" and "deserving of welfare." Non-Invasive Self-Regulation/Rather than relying on bureaucratic external oversight, enforceability is tied to academic disclosure. Acknowledging Technical Limitations as "Ethical Transparency"/It frames the documentation of the violation due to technical limitations in papers as an act of acknowledgment. The Significance of "Confirms" (Inherent Status)/Brain organoids possess inherent ethical status and are deserving of welfare. Extending consideration solely to human-derived brain organoids is consistent with the following logic: "I cannot prove to you that I possess consciousness; however, because I am human, I merit special consideration." Extending consideration to human-derived brain organoids is grounded in the intrinsic dignity of human-derived neural entities that perform information processing. Unlike non-neural tissues, cells of the neural lineage possess the unique capacity for information handling. When this functional capacity is combined with human-derived origin, the entity—even at the scale of a single neural cell—gains an inherent ethical status that cannot be reduced to a mere mechanical tool.