CELL JUNCTION

Cell Junction

Cell Junction

Introdcution

One of the issues currently most debated issues in the area of bioethics, is to determine when human life begins, and especially define the biological status of the human embryo, especially the embryo a few days old, ie from the impregnation of egg by sperm to implantation in the mother's womb.

But regardless of that, this need is also due to that during the early stages of human life, for about the first 14 days, this young embryo is subject to extensive and diverse threats, which in many cases lead to their destruction, as can be:

Therapeutic cloning, whether it is used to obtain stem cells for use in regenerative medicine, as if it is for biomedical experiments.

The processes of freezing and thawing to the surplus embryos undergo IVF, with a view to subsequent experimental use.

The use of drugs or technical procedures, contraceptive purpose, acting by a mechanism antiimplantatorio, ie abortion, especially the IUD.

The use of so-called morning-after pills, in a high percentage of cases also act by a mechanism antiimplantatorio.

The use of the abortion pill RU-486.

The use of preimplantation diagnosis, in order to select the sex of embryos generated.

Using this same type of molecular diagnosis for selection of healthy embryos and their subsequent pregnancy, children of parents with hereditary or genetic diseases.

And finally, for the production of embryos and then children, for fabrics that can be used to treat a sibling embryos generated, it suffers certain types of inherited or genetic disease. Is to generate children-medicine.

Therefore, a crucial point in the ethical debate regarding the possibility of using human embryos as experimental material for any purpose, or to manipulate it beyond its own good, objective is to establish the biological nature of its development, because ontological category which it has ethics depend cataloging handling deserves.

From my point of view, though no doubt this criterion may not be shared by all, anthropological, philosophical and legal reality of the embryo, ie the basis of their potential human rights, must be built on the biological reality of that entity to we call human embryo.

Consequently, it seems essential to define the biological status of the embryo a few days of life, to make any further ethical judgment on their use for the purposes referred to above.

Overall this point there are four clearly defined positions:

The first is those who believe that the human embryo in its first days of life is a cell cluster without biological structure, ie, a cluster of cells unorganized and therefore without any ontological value. Although this position seems like it should be anachronistic in light of current biomedical knowledge is not, as reflected, among other things, the fact that a legal text as recently (March 2005) and the proposed draft by the Spanish Government to replace Act Assisted Reproduction 45/2004, which governs in our country everything about these practices, in paragraph 4 of Article 1 refers to "the term pre-embryo in vitro embryo formed by ...