The Brave New World of Embryonic Stem Cell Research: Utilitarian Consequentialism and Faulty Moral Reasoning

Kass Leon Toward a More Natural Science: Biology and Human Affairs (New York: Free Press, 1985), p. 35.

Cf. Christian Brugger E. “Human Cloning, Theology of the Body And the Humanity of the Embryo,” The Linacre Quarterly 71 (2004): 232–244, especially 234. The terminological distinction between reproductive and therapeutic cloning is a semantic ruse, as every instance of human cloning is a true reproductive act. That is to say, the intended purpose of this research is to produce a new human being with human embryonic stem cells. After all, the specific aim of these studies is to assess the regenerative possibilities of totipotent hESCs.

When researchers at Advanced Cell Technology claimed to have used cloned ESCs from a cow to create a nascent kidney, they actually implanted the clone blastocyst into a cow's uterus, allowed the blastocyst to gestate for several weeks until the fetus formed a kidney, and then harvested the new kidney for transplantation. So, rather being than an example of therapeutic cloning, a cloned fetus was killed in order to harvest a nascent organ for transplantation. See Lanza Robert P. , Chung Ho Yun , Yoo James J. , Wettstein Peter J. , Blackwell Catherine , Borson Nancy , Hofmeister Erik , Schuch Gunter , Soker Shay , Moraes Carlos T. , West Michael D. , & Atala Anthony “Generation of Histocompatible Tissue Using Nuclear Transplantation,” Nature Biotechnology 20 (2002): 689–696.

The National Academies, “Guidelines Released for Embryonic Stem Cell Research,” at http://www.nationalacademies.org (emphasis added). The Guidelines also suggest that grafted pig porcine heart valves represent an instance of a porcine–human chimera, whereas a true chimera is an entire organism composed of two genetically distinct types of cells resulting from the fusion of two early blastula stage embryos. The more likely scenario here entails recourse to SNCT, in which the DNA of a human somatic cell is transferred to an animal oocyte, with the distinct possibility that animal mitochondrial DNA could enter the cloned genome, certainly an unintended consequence.

National Research Council and the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies, Prepublication Copy of Guidelines for Human Embryonic Stem Cell Research (Washington, DC: The National Academies Press, 2005), p. 41. This is available at http://www.nap.edu. This is a good example of the myth of romantic humanism, which puts faith in technological progress to solve human problems and leads to the desire for control over human nature. That this represents a kind of religion is evidenced by the fact that scientists seem to envision themselves as Promethean creators endowed with the capacity to surpass every natural or cultural limitation in order to move us into an open future. See Benedict M. Ashley, Choosing A World-View and Value-System: An Ecumenical Apologetics (New York: Alba House, 1999), pp. 50-51.

Fukuyama Francis Our Posthuman Future (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2002), p. 7.

Paul John II The Gospel of Life [Evangelium Vitae] (New York: Times Books, 1995), Chapter III, no. 57.5, p. 102.

Guidelines for Human Embryonic Stem Cell Research (Washington. DC: The National Academies Press, 2005), p. 39(emphasis added).

See a questions and answers forum with Cardinal John O'Connor that addresses this question at http://www.priestsforlife.org/magisterium/cardocqanda.html#qa14.

Guidelines for Human Embryonic Stem Cell Research (Washington, DC: The National Academies Press, 2005), p. 41.

Kass Leon Life, Liberty and she Defense of Dignity: The Challenge for Bioethics (San Francisco: Encounter Books, 2002), p. 17.

Anscombe See G. E. M. “Modern Moral Philosophy,” Philosophy 33 (1958): 1.

See Frey Raymond G. “Act-Utilitarianism,” in LaFollette H. (ed.), The Blackwell Guide so Ethical Theory (Maiden: Blackwell, 2000), p. 174; David Sobel, “Subjective Accounts of Reasons for Action,” Ethics 111 (2002): 461-492.

From Brock Dan W. “Cloning Human Beings: An Assessment of the Ethical Issues Pro and Con,” in Nussbaum M. C. , Sunstein C. R. (eds.), Clones and Clones: Facts and Fantasies about Human Cloning (New York: and London: W. W. Norton, 1998), pp. 141–164.

Putnam Hilary “Taking Rules Seriously,” in Conant J. (ed.). Realism with a Human Face (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1990), pp. 161–162

Taylor Charles “Lichtung or Lebensform: Parallels between Heidegger and Wittgenstein,” in Philosophical Arguments (Cambridge/Harvard: Harvard University Press, 1995), pp. 39–40.

Ratzinger Joseph “Introduction to Christianity: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow,” Communio 31 (2004): 481–495; citation at p. 493.

Dworkin Ronald M. Sovereign Virtue: The Theory and Practice of Equality (Cambridge. MA: Harvard University Press, 2000), p. 452

Dworkin Ronald M. Life's Dominion: An Argument about Abortion, Euthanasia, and Individual Freedom (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1993), pp. 15–18.

See MacIntyre Alasdair “Hume on Ms' and ‘Ought’,” Philosophical Review 68 (1959): 451–468.

Ratzinger Joseph Cardinal Salt of the Earth: Christianity and the Catholic Church at the End of the Millennium (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1997), p. 230.

Dancy Jonathan Moral Reasons (Oxford/Cambridge: Blackwell, 1993), p. 237.

See Costello Andrew “The Thinker,” Philadelphia (March 1994): 74–83.

O'Connell Timothy E. Principles for a Catholic Morality (New York: Seabury, 1978), p. 172.

Cf. Lee Patrick Abortion and Unborn Human Life (Washington, DC: The Catholic University of America Press, 1996), p. 140.

Weiss Rick , and Nelson Deborah “Teen Dies Undergoing Experimental Gene Therapy,” The Washington Post. September 29, 1999, A1.

See Rawls John A Theory of Justice (Oxford: Clarendon Press/Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1972), pp. 46–51.

Hare R.M. “Rawls Theory of Justice – I,” Philosophical Quarterly 23 (1973): 144–147.

Taken from the National Catholic Register 81 (May 22-28, 2005): 10.

Haecker Theodor Schönheit: Ein Versuch (Leipzig: Hegner, 1936), p. 91; cf. John Saward, The Beauty of Holiness and the Holiness of Beauty: Art, Sanctity and the Truth of Catholicism (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1997), pp. 32-37.