STEMCELL RESEARCH

Stemcell Research

Stemcell Research

Part 1: Annotated Bibliography

"AAAS Policy Brief: Stem Cell Research." Programs and Policy. American Association for the Advancement of Science: Retrieved from: http://www.aaas.org/spp/cstc/briefs/stemcells/index.shtml on November 13, 2009

The American Association for the Advancement of Science is an advocate for embryonic stem cell research, and while the factual and unemotional tone of the article does not reflect the bias of an advocate, it does perhaps do so in the emphasis it gives to the selected facts. The article is primarily an historical account of the stem cell controversy in a political context. It gives the dates of important governmental and political decisions in the development of the debate, including the enactment of key legislation, and focuses on the attempts of the National Institute of Health to interpret the law and to facilitate research within the restrictions imposed. Particular attention is given to President Bush's decision to allow federal funding for existing lines of stem cells, as well as the opposition to his restrictive decision by those within the Republican Party. It talks about the existing stem cell lines currently available for federal funding and notes the various problems that inhibit their usefulness in research. One section titled "Ethical Dispute" succinctly states the basic positions of the opposing sides. Those against the research say that the use of embryos left over from in vitro fertilization that would otherwise be destroyed "would still condone the destruction of embryos" and that "cells obtained from adults is just as promising."

Lauritzen, P. (2005). “The Hastings center Report”: Infotec: 35(2): p25

The Hasting Center describes itself as being "an independent, nonpartisan, and nonprofit bioethics research institute founded in 1969 to explore fundamental and emerging questions in health care, biotechnology, and the environment." The author makes two basic arguments against stem cell research: stem cell therapies might "undermine the notion of a natural human life or erode the boundary between human and non-human species." The essay then discusses what it means to be human and to have a natural human life span and how therapies that could significantly extend life might have profound consequences for both society and the the psychology of the individual. Lauritzen makes one point that is similar to what Thomas Shannon says in "Stem-Cell Research: How Catholic Ethics Guide Us." He too is concerned about "the social implications of a situation in which the wealthy are able to "buy" longer life spans while others can not. His second point of concern about the consequences of stem cell research and the therapies it may lead to is that we might destabilize "the concept of nature generally and the appropriate treatment of any sentient life." From a purely scientific point of view the human body is "simply material to be manipulated and animals are seen as simply machine-like rather than as sentient beings. This attitude gives rise to the potential use of animals to grow tissues that can be used as transplants to humans. The blurring of the lines between what is purely human and ...