STEM CELL RESEARCH Some examples of diseases that

STEM CELL RESEARCH Some examples of diseases that may be treated allowing stem cell research: Diabetes Alzheimer Parkinson Stem Cell Research is part of Regenerative Medicine (producing new cells, tissues, and organs that can be used to treat disease or injury)

BIOETHICS: STEM CELL RESEARCH Stem cells are found in early embryo and in other parts of the human body that are not yet, or not fully, differentiated Embryonic stem cells are called pluripotent because they can develop all of the body organs: they can be removed during the first week of embryonic development and cultivated (but of course in this way they will no longer develop into a fetus). Researchers are trying to learn how to control the process of their differentiation in order to be able to produce those cells, tissues, or even organs that are necessary for treating diseases

BIOETHICS: STEM CELL RESEARCH Preliminary question: the moral status of the early embryo Method I: Focusing on fetal development (What is present? When is it present? Why is this significant?) Conception or Fertilization a) for someone a human being exists from the time of conception, so the blastocyst, a ball of cells smaller than a grain of sand, has full moral status b) Someone else claims that since at this stage the cells are totipotient there is no individual here (think for example about identical twins, considering that they develop from by splitting cells in the early embryo)

BIOETHICS: STEM CELL RESEARCH Method II: Focusing on what kind of beings have a special moral status 1) Being Human VS Being like Human Beings 2) Potentiality VS Actuality VS Evolving Value

BIOETHICS: STEM CELL RESEARCH There are ‘leftover’ embryos stored in fertility clinics (half a million in the USA only) that could be used because they are often otherwise destroyed. Would you agree? Is this idea solution really different?

BIOETHICS: STEM CELL RESEARCH Alternative Solutions: Adult stem cells (they exist in bone marrow and other parts of the body such as the brain, skin, fat and muscle). Problems: they are multipotient (so they can develop only into some specific cells) and they look to be not as vigorous as embryo stem cells Amniotic fluid (but again it looks like they are not so vigorous) Researching on a small amphibian (the newt) that has the ability to regenerate, in order to understand how to de-differentiate cells

BIOETHICS: STEM CELL RESEARCH The Problem of Chimeras (animals with some human cells or organs) And the recommendations of the US National Institutes of Health (compare with the recommendations of ISSCR) Chimeras animals should not be allowed to mate Human stem cells should not be allowed to become part of an animal’s brain and should not be injected into other primates The embryo should not be allowed to develop for more than 14 days Women who donate eggs should not be paid in order to avoid financial inducement