Embryonic stem cells hold promise for new treatments, but their use in the experiments is the subject of heated debate. In various states the study of embryonic stem cells is regulated in very different ways. Try to mention this topic during a conversation in a random company in the bar or on the train - and the views of certain sections. But what exactly are the arguments in this debate, and why this debate is so difficult to resolve?
Ethical Dilemma
Embryonic stem cell research is an ethical dilemma that forces us to choose between the two moral principles:
- Duty to prevent and alleviate suffering;
- The duty to respect and value human life.
In the case of embryonic stem cell research at the same time comply with both principles impossible. To obtain the cells, it is necessary to destroy the embryo in the early stages of development. This means - the destruction of potential human life. But experiments with these cells may lead to the discovery of new treatments that will ease the suffering of many people. So what is the moral principle in this situation should be an advantage? The answer to this question depends on how we look at the embryo. Does it have the status of the individual?
The moral status of the human embryo
The status of the human embryo - a very controversial and difficult topic.
In an embryo has full moral status from the moment of fertilization
This item is limited in what we can consider the embryo as a person, or just as a potential human being. The criteria for what is, in this case - is a man of very vague, and different people have their eyes on it.
The arguments for the full moral status from the moment of fertilization:
Child development from a fertilized egg is a continuous process and any attempt to specify when the embryo becomes a human being, is conditional. The human embryo at the embryonic development of a human being, just as a child is a human being in the infancy. Although this is not the embryo has the characteristics of the person, it will become a person and he deserves the appropriate respect.
Arguments against:
The embryo at an early stage of development is not yet implanted in the uterine wall and has a psychological, emotional or physical properties that we associate with the person. Therefore, it can not be interested in defense, and we can use it for the benefit of patients, which are people.
The embryo can not develop into a child, unless it is placed in the woman's uterus. To develop they need help from the outside. Even with such care, the likelihood that the embryo used for artificial insemination, successfully develop into a fetus, and then - in a child low. That could potentially become a person can not be treated the same way as those who are already men.
There is a time limit - 14 days after fertilization
Some people believe that the human embryo must be protected from the fourteenth day after fertilization, because:
- After 14 days, the embryo can be split to give rise to the development of a double (or more potential children). Until then, perhaps splitting; moreover, within 14 days of embryo development can generally cease.
- Before the fourteenth day of the embryo is no central system, and hence the senses. If we can take organs from patients whose brain has died, and use them for transplantation, it is possible to use embryos that have not yet developed nervous system.
Fertilization - is a process, not an event that happens in an instant. In the early stages of embryonic development of its future identity has not been determined.
The status of the embryo increases as it develops
The embryo deserves some protection from the moment the sperm to fertilize the egg, and his moral status increases as he becomes more human.
Arguments in favor of this view:
There are several stages of development, which can be associated increase in moral status:
- Implantation of the embryo in the uterine wall about six days after fertilization.
- Start of development of the central nervous system - in about 14 days.
- The phase of development of the fetus
Fetal development - week after week
When he was able to survive in case of premature birth.
- Birth.
If the life is interrupted, this event is evaluated in different ways, depending on what stage of development of this happened. The fertilized egg deserves less protection than a human fetus or unborn child. More than half of all fertilized eggs die from natural causes. It is such losses are part of the natural process, then the use of a certain number of embryos for stem cell research
Stem cells: on the edge of scandal
we should not be disturbed.
Arguments against:
We protect the lives and interests of a person not from the point of view of society and the universe, but because they are important it is for that person. Whatever the moral status of the human embryo did not have our point of view, the life that he lives, has value for him.
If we judge the moral status of the embryo on the basis of his age, then we make arbitrary decisions about who is human. For example, if we say that the formation of the central nervous system means that the embryo has become a man, we still have no right to conclude that the patient has lost the nerve cells due to stroke
Stroke - a serious brain injury
He became man less than before.
If we are not sure whether a fertilized egg is considered a person or not, we must not destroy it. A hunter does not shoot if he can not say for sure who he took on sight - a deer or a person.
In general, the embryo has no moral status
Embryo - is an organic material, the status of which is not different from that of any part of the human body.
Arguments in favor of this view:
The fertilized egg is just part of the human body as long as it does not evolve so that it can survive outside it. The only reason that the blastocyst deserves special treatment is that it belongs to someone else. By destroying the blastocyst before it is implanted, we did not harm her, because she does not have beliefs, desires, expectations and goals that can be harmful.
Arguments against:
Isolating stem cells from an embryo located at an early stage of development, we help prevent normal development. This means that he can not become the person was - a human being.
Research on embryonic stem cells and religion
Different religions view the status of the human embryo in different ways. For example, Roman Catholic, Orthodox and conservative Protestant church believe that the embryo has the status of a person from the moment of conception
Conception, ovarian cycle, fertilization and genetics of a child
And any study of embryos should be banned. Adherents of Judaism and Islam agree on the need to help people already living and believe that the embryo is not full human rights to 40 days of development, so they are allowed some research embryos.
