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- Title
Ending the Stem Cell Debate: The Impact of iPSCs on Embryological Ethics.
- Authors
Navellier, Chase
- Abstract
Modern science has failed to establish a point in early human development that denotes the onset of traditional rights. As a result, the controversy over the usage of human embryonic stem cells in scientific research has proven to be a difficult topic to address. Those who argue against research frequently point to an embryo's potential to become a human being; they show that the potential necessitates an embryo be treated as a human in its own right. This paper looks at that argument through the lens of induced pluripotential stem cell (iPSC) technology that enables the creation of stem cells through nuclear reprogramming of adult, differentiated somatic cells. In light of their recent success, iPSCs are now being considered as a way to bypass the controversy by replacing the need for traditionally obtained embryonic stem cells. This paper argues that iPSCs are in fact the key to ending the ethical debate about stem cell research, but through a completely different mechanism. Because iPSC technology can create a viable human embryo, the potential-to-become-human argument must be applied to all somatic cells in order to maintain intellectual consistency. This would have unreasonable implications, namely that human rights must extend to all individual cells in the human body. This conclusion invalidates the potentiality argument, thereby eliminating the strongest secular argument against embryonic stem cell research.
- Publication
Penn Bioethics Journal, 2015, Vol 11, Issue 1, p16
- ISSN
2150-5462
- Publication type
Academic Journal