Robert P. George Lecture Series: Embryo Ethics: Justice and Nascent Human Life

نویسنده

  • Robert P. George
چکیده

If we were to contemplate killing mentally retarded infants to obtain transplantable organs, no one would characterize the controversy that would erupt as a debate “about organ transplantation.” The dispute would properly be characterized as a debate about the ethics of killing retarded children to harvest their vital organs. The issue could not be resolved by considering how many gravely ill non-retarded people could be saved by extracting a heart, two kidneys, a liver, etc. from each retarded child. The threshold question would be whether it is unjust to relegate a certain class of human beings—the retarded—to the status of objects that can be killed and dissected to benefit others. By the same token, we should not be speaking in terms of a debate “about embryonic stem cell research.” No one would object to the use of embryonic stem cells in biomedical research or therapy if they could be harvested without killing or harming the embryos from whom they were obtained. Nor would anyone object to using such cells if they could be obtained from embryos lost in spontaneous abortions. The point of controversy is the ethics of deliberately destroying human embryos for the purpose of harvesting their stem cells. The threshold question is whether it is unjust to kill members of a certain class of human beings— those in the embryonic stage of development—to benefit others. But are human embryos human beings? I will here state my reasons for sharing the view that human embryos are indeed human beings, and, as such, deserve what some call “full moral respect.” I will, in addition, respond to some of the arguments advanced by people who reject this view.

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تاریخ انتشار 2013