Bonnie Steinbock who is a professor of philosophy at Albany and specialist in bioethics, she seems to understand well in embryonic stem cell research in pro and cons. on her esssay "Respect for Human Embryo", she was debating embryos in moral valuve and we have to carefully evaluated for sientific stem cell research technology for only for reasonably benefit for the human life in necessity.
There are people who has heavey weight in moral values in embryos as much as " deserves special respect" and "serious moral consideratiopn as a developing form of human life(p:668). the controversy as Jhon Robertson describes "If the embryo has no rights or interest , how can it be owed special respect? on other hand, if embryo is owed special respect, is it not then a holder of rights, including the right not to be the subject of research? What does 'special respect' mean(p:668&669)." It is hard to make a line how much moral value in embryos even though it can be pre implatation inform of human life.
Steinbock argues that embryo do not have interests or welfare of their own and it is impossible to show them serious moral consideration. There are many left over tens of thousand of embryos in infertility clinic's freezer in the United States that can not be useing for the Invitro fertilization(IVF) for the infertility women due to infertility clinic has to use freshly saved embryos for the fertility purpose.
We have to answer the questions that is it moral ethically right or wrong that these left over embryos keep in freezer forever or distroy them or sientists can use them as their reseach project for the cure for the serious diseases as a parkinsons diseas, spinal cord injuries, severely burned patients, bone marrow transplant or any other serioues diseases. so far stemcell research technology knows some of knowldges that blastcytes(few cells differentiated from embryo in befoer 5 days)can be injected to ill site of human body with minimal rejection or none rejection from human body to regerate new fresh cells.
I will be add little more later soon.
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ReplyDeleteIn regards to the destruction or donation of unused embyros, I believe, this issue falls under the right to reproductive freedom (although it may be said that this in not an inherent right, society has already granted us such rights by abortion, contraception etc.), that it is ultimately up to the parents, the fate of said embyro. If we, as a society, can accept or at least sanction the right to terminate pregnancy then the right to terminate those embyros again exists and ulitmately falls to the parents. I do not think it is neccessarily appropriate the Human Feritilization and Embryonic Act puts a 5 year limit on freezing embyros as it undermines the autonomy of the parent by putting a time limit on their right. However, I do see how many people would never decide what to do with the embyros in denial of the moral conflicts that may arise when making the choice. I think the fate of the unused embyros needs to be made prior to any IVF procedure by the parents and if they cannot decide then perhaps they are not good candidiates for the procedure. (if you cannot deal with the consequences of your actions perhaps you should not act.) On a side note, when you walk into any OBGYN office as of late, there is a new service allowing the parents of an infant to save the umblicial cord (called a "Cord Bank"), which houses many embroyonic stem cells, in case of future need for said child or family member. Since these cells are stem cells, and through advances in medical science they could be possibly differentitated into embryos at a later date, do they have same "potential for moral value" as a frozen embryo? Not sure...just wondering anyones thoughts on this issue.
ReplyDeleteI am sorry that I could not complete my blogging due to my working schedule. I thought that I could adding more later on pupblishing section by edditing; however, I could not add any more since I posted already. so I am going to add my thought through this comment section.
ReplyDeleteSteinbock emphasizes that it would be wrong to unimportant project on human embryos "such as using embryos to teach high school science classes to test the safety of new cosmetics or to create jewelry(p:669 &670). Steinbock says that theses acts are respectful for the human embryos rather than respect human life.
I agreed that we should heavy weight on respect human embryos with careful evaluation to use scientific stem cell research whether human life can be benefit thier serious diseases can be cure by only mean of this embryonic stem cell research; however, we can not have a full benefit unless we know more knowledge through advanced embryonic stem cell research.
Instead keeping unused embryos in freezer forever or destroy them., it would be more weight on respect human embryos through a research and benefit out of knowledge in our human life to cure serious disease. additionally, other options for technologies are Cloning somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer(SCNT) for cure disease, not the cloning of human being.
Of course, It would be essential to obtain permission for thier autonomy from donors that if left over their sperms or ovums for fertilization for human lives, it can be use for embryonic stem cell research to advanced technology for human who seriously benefit out of these knowleges to cure diseases. By the way an ovum can not be saved alone without fertilization with sperm in freezer.
I actually pretty much agreed with everything Steinbock had to say. Personally, I don't have a problem with discarding embryos. And with all due respect, I find it laughable that there's people out there that argue that discarded embryos be given a proper funeral.
ReplyDeleteI believe that we should have respect for embryos as a form of human life, but not as humans themselves. A lot still needs to take place for these little things to become human beings. This does not mean that we should throw embryos around as if they are paper clips, but that we should use them for productive purposes that benefit important medical research.
As far as when to discard the embryos, I like what Wasabi has to say about deciding the fate of the embryos before any IVF procedure takes place. It should be up to the couple if they decide to keep their embryos frozen indefinitely.
Wasabi made a good point when she stated: If we, as a society, can accept or at least sanction the right to terminate pregnancy then the right to terminate those embyros again exists and ulitmately falls to the parents. I truly back this up 100%.
ReplyDeleteI personally have been going back and forth with regards to my feelings about embryonic research. Especially with Robertson’s statement: "If the embryo has no rights or interest, how can it be owed special respect? On other hand, if the embryo is owed special respect, is it not then a holder of rights, including the right not to be the subject of research? This statement needs to be addressed in great detail, such as defining special respect as opposed to general respect, and other than the right not to be the subject of research, what other rights should this entail? Maybe there is not right or wrong answer to these questions, that perhaps it should just be left up to the couple involved, and let each person decide for themselves.
Like others who have listed postings on the topic of embryonic stem cell research, I am truly undecided where I stand here. As Steinbock first asked, I think the biggest question with embryonic stem cell research is "when does life begin?", and if you believe that life begins at conception, than there certainly should be reverance for that life and questions of how or when that life should end. For the potential that stem cells (embryonic and adult) seem to possess, I am really stuck because of course I am interested in the potential to rid humanity of some truly terrible diseases, but what of the embryos that are just tossed aside at the end of the experimentation process? I do appreciate the autonomy of parental/ reproductive rights argument...I just don't know, but I'm very interested in the discussion. Some great points have already been made, perhaps I can be convinced to make a decision one way or the other.
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