Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t7czq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-24T23:47:16.176Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Old and New Ethics in the Stem Cell Debate

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2021

Richard M. Doerflinger
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

The ethical debate on embryo research, particularly on whether to destroy human embryos for stem cell research, is sometimes said to involve a confrontation between religion and science. The claim is misleading at best. Ironically, religious claims have not infrequently been invoked by those who support human embryonic stem cell research, who have said that such research will enable us to “answer the prayers of America’s families” or present us with “the biblical power to cure.” And even religious organizations (as well as scientists and ethicists who share some of their concerns on this issue) have often made the case against the ethical acceptability of this research relying on science, and on general ethical considerations that transcend religious divisions. The Catholic Church, in particular, maintains that the ethical norm against directly taking the life of any innocent human being can be understood and embraced by people of good will, with or without religious faith, and that the application of this norm to the present controversy depends on an understanding of some basic facts about early human development.

Type
Symposium
Information
Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics , Volume 38 , Issue 2 , Summer 2010 , pp. 212 - 219
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Law, Medicine and Ethics 2010

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Rep. Nancy Pelosi, Congressional Record, July 19, 2006, at H5445.Google Scholar
Moore, K. L., and Persaud, T. V. N., The Developing Human: Clinically Oriented Embryology, 7th ed. (Philadelphia: Saunders0 2003): at 2.Google Scholar
Carlson, B. M., Patten's Foundations of Embryology, 6th ed. (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1996): at 3.Google Scholar
See Pearson, H., “Your Destiny, from Day One,” Nature 418, no. 6893 (July 4, 2002): 14–15.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Green, R., “Toward a Copernican Revolution in Our Thinking about Life's Beginning and Life's End,” Soundings: An Interdisciplinary Journal 66, no. 2 (Summer 1983): 152–73, at 154.Google Scholar
National Bioethics Advisory Commission, Ethical Issues in Human Stem Cell Research, Vol. I, September 1999, at ii.Google Scholar
National Institutes of Health, Report of the Human Embryo Research Panel, September 1994, at 2.Google Scholar
Lincoln, A., “Fragment on Slavery,” in Fehrenbacher, D., ed., Abraham Lincoln: Speeches and Writings 1832–1858 (New York: Library of America, 1989): at 303.Google Scholar
Singer, P., “Sanctity of Life or Quality of Life?” Pediatrics 72, no. 1 (July 1983): 128–129.Google Scholar
See Green, , supra note 5, at 156.Google Scholar
Brock, D. W., Life and Death: Philosophical Essays in Biomedical Ethics (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993): at 373.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Editorial, “A New Ethic for Medicine and Society,” California Medicine 113, no. 3 (September 1970): 67–68.Google Scholar
A report of this study by the Public Health Service in 1953 showed no trace of ethical concern. Rather, the authors commented favorably on how they encouraged subjects to comply with the study by offering “incentives,” including the offer of free burial assistance when they died from untreated syphilis. The authors concluded, “As public health workers accumulate experience and skill in this type of study, not only should the number of such studies increase, but a maximum of information will be gained from the efforts expended.” See Rivers, E. et al., “Twenty Years of Followup Experience in a Long-Range Medical Study,” Public Health Reports 68, no. 4 (April 1953): 391–395.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
One argument here was that the researchers were not adding much to the net amount of infection in this population because many of the children would have contracted hepatitis anyway. See the source materials in Katz, J., Experimentation with Human Beings (New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 1972): at 1007–1008.Google Scholar
Here the drive for knowledge could gain extra support from the drive for national security. See Skolnick, A., “Advisory Committee Report Recommends That U.S. Make Amends for Human Radiation Experiments,” JAMA 274, no. 12 (1995): 933.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blakemore, C., “The Shifting Ratio of Benefit and Cost,” in Brockman, J., ed., What Are You Optimistic About? (London: Simon & Schuster, 2007): 143–146 at 145.Google Scholar
See Transcript of the NIH Human Embryo Research Panel, National Institutes of Health, Rockville, MD, 1994, Monday, April 11, 1994, at 92; Fletcher, J., Situation Ethics: The New Morality (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1966): at 120–121.Google Scholar
See Editorial, supra note 12, at 68.Google Scholar
See Green, , supra note 5, at 161.Google Scholar
See Remarks of President Barack Obama, “Signing of Stem Cell Executive Order and Scientific Integrity Presidential Memorandum,” Office of the Press Secretary, The White House, March 9, 2009, available at <http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/Remarks-of-the-President-As-Prepared-for-Delivery-Signing-of-Stem-Cell-Executive-Order-and-Scientific-Integrity-Presidential-Memorandum> (last visited March 15, 2010); Stein, R., “Obama Aims to Shield Science from Politics,” Washington Post, March 9, 2009, at A2.Google Scholar
Most notably the current guidelines do not provide for use of stem cells from human embryos specially created for research, although some scientists had hoped for such a broader policy and the president's remarks left this possibility open. See “National Institutes of Health Guidelines for Human Stem Cell Research,” Federal Register 74, no. 128 (July 7, 2009): 32170–32175, at 32171.Google Scholar
Baker, P., “Banned Techniques Yielded ‘High Value Information,’ Memo Says,” New York Times, April 21, 2009, available at <http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/22/us/politics/22blair.html?_r=3&hp> (last visited March 15, 2010).Google Scholar
Kolata, G., “Man Who Helped Start Stem Cell War May End It,” New York Times, November 22, 2007, at A1, available at <http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/22/science/22stem.html?ref=science&pagewanted=print> (last visited March 15, 2010).Google Scholar
See National Bioethics Advisory Commission, supra note 6, at 53.Google Scholar
Dr. James Thomson quoted in Kolata, G., “Man Who Helped Start Stem Cell War May End It,” New York Times, November 22, 2007, available at <http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/22/science/22stem.html> (last visited March 15, 2010). Also see Weiss, R., “Advance May End Stem Cell Debate,” Washington Post, November 21, 2007, at A1, available at <http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/20/AR2007112000546_pf.html> (last visited March 15, 2010). (“What a great bookend…. Ten years of turmoil and now this nice ending. I can relax now.”)Google Scholar
See Executive Order 13435, “Expanding Approved Stem Cell Lines in Ethically Responsible Ways,” Federal Register 72, no. 120 (June 22, 2007): 34591–34593; revoked by Executive Order 13505, “Removing Barriers to Responsible Scientific Research Involving Human Stem Cells,” Federal Register 74, no. 46 (March 11, 2009): 10667–10668, at 10668.Google Scholar
See Vogel, G., “Breakthrough of the Year: Reprogramming Cells,” Science 322, no. 5909 (December 19, 2008): 1766–1767.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dr. Shinya Yamanaka, quoted in Fackler, M., “Risk Taking Is in His Genes,” New York Times, December 11, 2007, available at <http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/11/science/11prof.html> (last visited March 15, 2010).Google Scholar
Prof. Lord Winston, Robert, stem cell scientist and fertility expert, Gresham Special Lecture, June 20, 2005, available at <http://www.gresham.ac.uk/printtranscript.asp?EventId=347> (last visited March 15, 2010).+(last+visited+March+15,+2010).>Google Scholar
Dr. McKay, Ron, quoted in Weiss, R., “Stem Cells an Unlikely Therapy for Alzheimer's,” Washington Post, June 10, 2004, at A3.Google Scholar
See Doerflinger, R., “The Problem of Deception in Embryonic Stem Cell Research,” Cell Proliferation 41, Supp. 1 (2008): 65–70.CrossRefGoogle Scholar