Interesting Editorial on the New Stem Cells Derivation Technique

Interesting Editorial on the New Stem Cells Derivation Technique

David Magnus, director of the Stanford University Center for Biomedical Ethics and a member of the California Human Stem Cell Advisory Committee, and Arthur Caplan, director of the University of Pennsylvania Center for Bioethics (website may be down), co-wrote an editorial which appeared in the San Jose Mercury News on Wednesday October 19th. Their piece says that the two new techniques are both “scientific pandering.”

They say that few in the scientific community think that either method (ANT or PGD-method) will be effective, that the techniques do not solve the moral issues for people opposed to making any changes to human embryos, that “holding up important research to pursue possible alternatives because there are critics of the morality of existing techniques is a terrible idea,” and

There is no evidence yet that primate cloning is possible and all available knowledge suggests that embryos produced by cloning cannot reliably develop into fully functioning human beings. In other words, we have had the technology and
techniques we need already. . . . We should not be trying to appease a minority with scientific flimflammery while delaying promising research that one day may lead to treatments that improve millions of lives.

While I generally agree with these points, I do see this editorial as one coming from a rhetorical position of high moral certainty, even dogmatism, that perhaps needs to be challenged a little. Critics in a minority are not necessarily wrong because they are small in number; many social transformations have been started by a few ostracized people. There are times when it is not a terrible idea to step back and pursue alternatives, times when it is important to pay attention to those who criticize the morality of something.

Let’s put aside the specific questions embryonic stem cell research generates (What is a human? When does human life begin? What makes an embryo?) for a moment to see what happens when an issue, be it scientific or sociological or artistic, is approached in a spirit of open-minded discovery and generosity. Science by its very nature leads to complications in how human see themselves and their place in the world, and it is worth spending some time to acknowledge the complications and their accompanying, often unspoken, fears instead of shutting them down.