Old and New Ethics in the Stem Cell Debate

Rep. Nancy Pelosi, Congressional Record, July 19, 2006, at H5445.

Moore K. L. Persaud T. V. N. , The Developing Human: Clinically Oriented Embryology, 7th ed. (Philadelphia: Saunders0 2003): at 2.

Carlson B. M. , Patten's Foundations of Embryology, 6th ed. (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1996): at 3.

See Pearson H. , “Your Destiny, from Day One,” Nature 418, no. 6893 (July 4, 2002): 14–15.

Green R. , “Toward a Copernican Revolution in Our Thinking about Life's Beginning and Life's End,” Soundings: An Interdisciplinary Journal 66, no. 2 (Summer 1983): 152–73, at 154.

National Bioethics Advisory Commission, Ethical Issues in Human Stem Cell Research, Vol. I, September 1999, at ii.

National Institutes of Health, Report of the Human Embryo Research Panel, September 1994, at 2.

Lincoln A. , “Fragment on Slavery,” in Fehrenbacher D. , ed., Abraham Lincoln: Speeches and Writings 1832–1858 (New York: Library of America, 1989): at 303.

Singer P. , “Sanctity of Life or Quality of Life?” Pediatrics 72, no. 1 (July 1983): 128–129.

See Green , supra note 5, at 156.

Brock D. W. , Life and Death: Philosophical Essays in Biomedical Ethics (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993): at 373.

Editorial, “A New Ethic for Medicine and Society,” California Medicine 113, no. 3 (September 1970): 67–68.

A report of this study by the Public Health Service in 1953 showed no trace of ethical concern. Rather, the authors commented favorably on how they encouraged subjects to comply with the study by offering “incentives,” including the offer of free burial assistance when they died from untreated syphilis. The authors concluded, “As public health workers accumulate experience and skill in this type of study, not only should the number of such studies increase, but a maximum of information will be gained from the efforts expended.” See Rivers E. , “Twenty Years of Followup Experience in a Long-Range Medical Study,” Public Health Reports 68, no. 4 (April 1953): 391–395.

One argument here was that the researchers were not adding much to the net amount of infection in this population because many of the children would have contracted hepatitis anyway. See the source materials in Katz J. , Experimentation with Human Beings (New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 1972): At 1007–1008.

Here the drive for knowledge could gain extra support from the drive for national security. See Skolnick A. , “Advisory Committee Report Recommends That U.S. Make Amends for Human Radiation Experiments,” JAMA 274, no. 12 (1995): 933.

Blakemore C. , “The Shifting Ratio of Benefit and Cost,” in Brockman J. , ed., What Are You Optimistic About? (London: Simon & Schuster, 2007): 143–146 at 145.

See Transcript of the NIH Human Embryo Research Panel , National Institutes of Health, Rockville, MD, 1994, Monday, April 11, 1994, at 92; Fletcher J. , Situation Ethics: The New Morality (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1966): At 120–121.

See Editorial, supra note 12, at 68.

See Green , supra note 5, at 161.

See Remarks of President Barack Obama, “Signing of Stem Cell Executive Order and Scientific Integrity Presidential Memorandum,” Office of the Press Secretary, The White House, March 9, 2009, available at <www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/Remarks-of-the-President-As-Prepared-for-Delivery-Signing-of-Stem-Cell-Executive-Order-and-Scientific-Integrity-Presidential-Memorandum> (last visited March 15, 2010); Stein R. , “Obama Aims to Shield Science from Politics,” Washington Post, March 9, 2009, at A2.

Most notably the current guidelines do not provide for use of stem cells from human embryos specially created for research, although some scientists had hoped for such a broader policy and the president's remarks left this possibility open. See “National Institutes of Health Guidelines for Human Stem Cell Research,” Federal Register 74, no. 128 (July 7, 2009): 32170–32175, at 32171.

Baker P. , “Banned Techniques Yielded ‘High Value Information,’ Memo Says,” New York Times, April 21, 2009, available at <www.nytimes.com/2009/04/22/us/politics/22blair.html?_r=3&hp> (last visited March 15, 2010).

Kolata G. , “Man Who Helped Start Stem Cell War May End It,” New York Times, November 22, 2007, at A1, available at <www.nytimes.com/2007/11/22/science/22stem.html?ref=science&pagewanted=print> (last visited March 15, 2010).

See National Bioethics Advisory Commission, supra note 6, at 53.

Dr. James Thomson quoted in Kolata G. , “Man Who Helped Start Stem Cell War May End It,” New York Times, November 22, 2007, available at <www.nytimes.com/2007/11/22/science/22stem.html> (last visited March 15, 2010). Also see Weiss R. , “Advance May End Stem Cell Debate,” Washington Post, November 21, 2007, at A1, available at <www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/20/AR2007112000546_pf.html> (last visited March 15, 2010). (“What a great bookend…. Ten years of turmoil and now this nice ending. I can relax now.”)

See Executive Order 13435, “Expanding Approved Stem Cell Lines in Ethically Responsible Ways,” Federal Register 72, no. 120 (June 22, 2007): 34591–34593; revoked by Executive Order 13505, “Removing Barriers to Responsible Scientific Research Involving Human Stem Cells,” Federal Register 74, no. 46 (March 11, 2009): 10667–10668, at 10668.

See Vogel G. , “Breakthrough of the Year: Reprogramming Cells,” Science 322, no. 5909 (December 19, 2008): 1766–1767.

Dr. Shinya Yamanaka, quoted in Fackler M. , “Risk Taking Is in His Genes,” New York Times, December 11, 2007, available at <www.nytimes.com/2007/12/11/science/11prof.html> (last visited March 15, 2010).

Winston Lord Robert Prof. , stem cell scientist and fertility expert, Gresham Special Lecture, June 20, 2005, available at <www.gresham.ac.uk/printtranscript.asp?EventId=347> (last visited March 15, 2010).

McKay Ron Dr. , quoted in Weiss R. , “Stem Cells an Unlikely Therapy for Alzheimer's,” Washington Post, June 10, 2004, at A3.

See Doerflinger R. , “The Problem of Deception in Embryonic Stem Cell Research,” Cell Proliferation 41, Supp. 1 (2008): 65–70.