“I believe that human life begins in the womb, not a Petri dish or refrigerator …. Hatch states: “The support of embryonic stem cell research is consistent with pro-life, pro-family values. This view is held, for example, by former First Lady Nancy Reagan and by U.S. A number of pro-life leaders support stem cell research using frozen embryos that remain after a woman or couple has completed infertility treatment and that they have decided not to give to another couple. However, such opposition to stem cell research is not monolithic. Opposition to hESC research is often associated with opposition to abortion and with the “pro-life” movement. Many hold a middle ground that the early embryo deserves special respect as a potential human being but that it is acceptable to use it for certain types of research provided there is good scientific justification, careful oversight, and informed consent from the woman or couple for donating the embryo for research ( 5). Few people, however, believe that the embryo or blastocyst is just a clump of cells that can be used for research without restriction. Many other people have a different view of the moral status of the embryo, for example that the embryo becomes a person in a moral sense at a later stage of development than fertilization.
From this perspective, taking a blastocyst and removing the inner cell mass to derive an embryonic stem cell line is tantamount to murder ( 4). According to this view, an embryo has interests and rights that must be respected. As a matter of religious faith and moral conviction, they believe that “human life begins at conception” and that an embryo is therefore a person. Some people, however, believe that an embryo is a person with the same moral status as an adult or a live-born child. It is not disputed that embryos have the potential to become human beings if implanted into a woman’s uterus at the appropriate hormonal phase, an embryo could implant, develop into a fetus, and become a live-born child. In the United States, the question of when human life begins has been highly controversial and closely linked to debates over abortion. However, human embryonic stem cell (hESC) research is ethically and politically controversial because it involves the destruction of human embryos. Pluripotent stem cell lines can be derived from the inner cell mass of the 5- to 7-d-old blastocyst. Table 1 1 summarizes the ethical issues that arise at different phases of stem cell research. With any hSC research, however, there are difficult dilemmas, including consent to donate materials for hSC research, early clinical trials of hSC therapies, and oversight of hSC research ( 2). The reprogramming of somatic cells to produce induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS cells) avoids the ethical problems specific to embryonic stem cells. Several other methods of deriving stem cells raise fewer ethical concerns. The derivation of pluripotent stem cell lines from oocytes and embryos is fraught with disputes regarding the onset of human personhood and human reproduction. However, human stem cell (hSC) research also raises sharp ethical and political controversies. Scientists plan to differentiate pluripotent cells into specialized cells that could be used for transplantation. Pluripotent stem cells perpetuate themselves in culture and can differentiate into all types of specialized cells. STEM CELL RESEARCH offers great promise for understanding basic mechanisms of human development and differentiation, as well as the hope for new treatments for diseases such as diabetes, spinal cord injury, Parkinson’s disease, and myocardial infarction ( 1). This article provides a critical analysis of these issues and how they are addressed in current policies.
These ethical and policy issues need to be discussed along with scientific challenges to ensure that stem cell research is carried out in an ethically appropriate manner. In any hSC research, however, difficult dilemmas arise regarding sensitive downstream research, consent to donate materials for hSC research, early clinical trials of hSC therapies, and oversight of hSC research. The reprogramming of somatic cells to produce induced pluripotent stem cells avoids the ethical problems specific to embryonic stem cell research. The derivation of pluripotent stem cell lines from oocytes and embryos is fraught with disputes about the onset of human personhood.
Stem cell research offers great promise for understanding basic mechanisms of human development and differentiation, as well as the hope for new treatments for diseases such as diabetes, spinal cord injury, Parkinson’s disease, and myocardial infarction.