Stem Cell Research as Innovation: Expanding the Ethical and Policy Conversation

In 1998, researchers established the first human embryonic stem cell line. Their scientific achievements have led to ethical and policy debate that continues to exist today. Bioethologists, religious leaders, senior government officials, patient advocates, and scientists continue to discuss whether this research is a social hope, threat or ethical mixed depiction.

It is understandable that scientists are excited about the knowledge that human embryonic stem cells can produce. Most of them believe that these cells provide valuable opportunities to learn more about the cause of diseases and how to prevent or attack diseases. In an effort to gain support for stem cell research, scientists have argued that this study can treat a variety of treatments ranging from heart disease to cancer.

Most people are now familiar with the various medical benefits that may be brought about by stem cell research, but I am not so familiar with the various ethical issues related to research. The focus of most moral arguments is to destroy the morality of human embryos for the benefit of others. Although this is an important issue, stem cell research raises other important ethical issues - problems not attracting much attention in the public domain -. After a narrow analysis over more than 10 years, the time has come to expand the scope of discussion.

Discussions on embryonic stem cell research need to consider various ethical and policy issues. Many of the ethical and policy issues of stem cell research apply to general biomedical research such as questions on the priority of appropriate research and limited resource allocation for research and health management. In this sense, discussion on stem cell research provides the opportunity to study various ethical and policy issues arising from biomedical innovation.

In this article we will place stem cell research within a wider ethical and policy situation by explaining three more noteworthy considerations in the discussion. This includes (1) communicating truth and scientific integrity, (2) giving priority to allocation of research and health resources, and (3) citizen's discourse responsibility for bioethical disputes.

The main ethical and policy issues of stem cells are related to the induction and use of embryonic stem cells. A few Americans are opposed to embryos that arise when stem cell sources are destroyed. Regardless of how valuable the research is to society, embryonic stem cell research is particularly controversial, as their preimplantation human embryos, which are considered to be 5 days of age, should not be destroyed. In order to avoid this moral controversy, the president's bioethics committee recommended "alternate source" of pluripotent stem cells in 2005. Several alternatives have been developed and most remarkably that induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells - human skin cells and other somatic cells are reprogrammed to behave like embryonic cells There. However, research on embryonic stem cells is still needed.

Human embryonic stem cells go into regenerative medicine. The use of human embryonic stem cells poses different ethical issues. Application of these cells can be applied to tissue engineering, genetic engineering and other medical research purposes. Although the use of adult stem cells is not controversial, the use of human embryonic stem cells raises different ethical issues based on cellular origin. (Hug, human embryo source for stem cell research, 2005)