What is it that makes a life valuable? A popular view is that life’s moral worth depends in some way on its relationship to consciousness or subjective experience. But a practical application of this view requires the ability to test for consciousness, which is currently lacking. Here, we examine how theories of consciousness (ToC) can help do so, focusing especially on difficult cases where the answer is not clear (e.g. fetuses, nonhuman animals, unresponsive brain-injured patients, and advanced artificial systems). We consider five major ToC and what predictions they offer: Information Integration Theory, Higher-Order Thought Theory, Recurrent Processing Theory, Global Neuronal Workspace Theory, and Attention Schema Theory. We highlight the important distinction between the capacity and potential for consciousness and use it to explore the limitations in our ability to draw firm conclusions regarding an entity's consciousness on the basis of each theory.

是什么让生命变得有价值？一种流行的观点是，生命的道德价值在某种程度上取决于它与意识或主观体验的关系。但这一观点的实际应用需要具备测试意识的能力，而目前尚缺乏这种能力。在这里，我们研究意识理论（ToC）如何帮助做到这一点，特别关注答案不明确的困难情况（例如胎儿、非人类动物、反应迟钝的脑损伤患者和先进的人工系统）。我们考虑五个主要的 ToC 及其提供的预测：信息整合理论、高阶思维理论、循环处理理论、全局神经元工作空间理论和注意模式理论。