  Let us say that an individual’s moral status is enhanced if it is raised from a (significantly) lower degree of moral status to the moral status of a normal adult human. The Moral Status Framework raises two general questions about chimeric research. First, under what circumstances is it permissible to perform research in which an animal’s moral status is enhanced? (If animals already have the same moral status as a normal human adult, then the Moral Status Framework becomes otiose, except as a possible sociological explanation of why some people who believe that animals normally have a significantly lower moral status than humans might object to some kinds of chimeric research.) Second, under what circumstances would the introduction of human material actually enhance an animal’s moral status?