Four moral questions for human embryonic stem cell research.
Human embryonic stem cell research offers great promise for the treatment of many serious disease conditions in a variety of medical areas, including wound healing. Before this promise can be realized, society and individual researchers, clinicians, and patients will have to answer four ethical questions: 1) Can we ever intentionally destroy a human embryo? 2) Can we benefit from others' destruction of embryos? 3) Can we create an embryo to destroy it? 4) Can we clone human embryos? After outlining the issues raised by each question, the author concludes by indicating his own affirmative answer to each of these questions.
Green
R M
RM
Ethics Institute, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire 03755-3500, USA. m.green@dartmouth.edu
D001675:Bioethics; D019976:Cloning, Organism; D004622:Embryo, Mammalian / Q000166:cytology; D006801:Humans; D013677:Medical Laboratory Science; D009014:Morals; D012106:Research; D013234:Stem Cells / Q000502:physiology*