Emerging Ethical, Legal and Social Issues Associated with Stem Cell Research & and the Current Role of the Moral Status of the Embryo

2009 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 96-101 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amy Zarzeczny ◽  
Timothy Caulfield
Keyword(s):  
Stem Cell ◽  
Stem Cell Research ◽  
Moral Status ◽  
Social Issues ◽  
Current Role

scholarly journals Moral Limits of Brain Organoid Research

2019 ◽  
Vol 47 (4) ◽  
pp. 760-767 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julian J. Koplin ◽  
Julian Savulescu
Keyword(s):  
Stem Cell ◽  
Human Brain ◽  
Stem Cell Research ◽  
Cognitive Abilities ◽  
Moral Status ◽  
Ethical Challenges ◽  
Ethical Concerns ◽  
Moral Framework ◽  
Brain Organoid ◽  
Regulations And Guidelines

Brain organoid research raises ethical challenges not seen in other forms of stem cell research. Given that brain organoids partially recapitulate the development of the human brain, it is plausible that brain organoids could one day attain consciousness and perhaps even higher cognitive abilities. Brain organoid research therefore raises difficult questions about these organoids' moral status – questions that currently fall outside the scope of existing regulations and guidelines. This paper shows how these gaps can be addressed. We outline a moral framework for brain organoid research that can address the relevant ethical concerns without unduly impeding this important area of research.

Creating Embryos for Use in Stem Cell Research

2010 ◽  
Vol 38 (2) ◽  
pp. 229-237 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dan W. Brock
Keyword(s):  
Stem Cell ◽  
Stem Cell Research ◽  
Human Embryo ◽  
Moral Status ◽  
Human Embryonic Stem Cell ◽  
Embryonic Stem ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Early Embryos ◽  
The Moment ◽  
Hesc Research

The intense and extensive debate over human embryonic stem cell (hESC) research has focused primarily on the moral status of the human embryo. Some commentators assign full moral status of normal adult human beings to the embryo from the moment of its conception. At the other extreme are those who believe that a human embryo has no significant moral status at the time it is used and destroyed in stem cell research. And in between are many intermediate positions that assign an embryo some degree of moral status between none and full. This controversy and the respective positions, like the abortion controversy, is by now well understood, despite the lack of progress in resolving it. I have argued briefly elsewhere that early embryos do not have significant moral status, but I do not want to reenter that debate here. Instead, I want to focus on an issue that has had relatively little explicit and separate attention, but is likely to loom larger in light of the Obama administration’s partial lifting of the Bush administration’s restriction on the embryos that can be used in stem cell research that receives federal funding.

Should we sacrifice embryos to cure people?

Human Affairs ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 22 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Francisco Lara
Keyword(s):  
Stem Cells ◽  
Stem Cell ◽  
Embryonic Stem Cells ◽  
Stem Cell Research ◽  
Moral Status ◽  
Embryonic Stem ◽  
Embryonic Cells ◽  
Therapeutic Research

AbstractMedical stem cell research is currently the cause of much moral controversy. Those who would confer the same moral status to embryos as we do to humans consider that harvesting such embryonic cells entails sacrificing embryos. In this paper, the author analyses critically the arguments given for such a perspective. Finally, a theory of moral status is outlined that coherently and plausibly supports the use of embryonic stem cells in therapeutic research.

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