Recent Ethical Controversies About Stem Cell Research

Abstract

When we think of the state of bioethics at the present time, the moral dimensions of stem cell research and cloning, genetic therapy and counseling, reproductive interventions, organ and tissue transplantation, and life-prolonging (sometimes better described as dying-prolonging) technologies come to mind. All of these issues have come to the forefront because of the incredible and almost unimaginable advances in biology, chemistry, physics, and electronics over the past quarter of a century, which have greatly increased the potential for enhancing human wellbeing. Our cultural values and laws have barely been able to deal, in a coherent way, with the opportunities and dangers posed by the advances which are resulting from this accelerated pace of scientific development. The media, and people at large, are often supportive of these technologies because, although the creation and destruction of new human life and the transformation of human embryos into stem cells are often the “collateral damage” of this research, the focus is generally on how well off everyone would be if we could just develop the research into new and better therapeutic applications. Scientists working in these fields are almost always asking for government support without any restrictive legal guidelines or prohibitions. I believe that it is up to bioethicists to ask the difficult (and often unpopular) ethical questions that relate to contemporary advances in biomedical research that will guide both scientists and public policy in the years to come.