Using Excess Ivf Blastocysts for Embryonic Stem Cell Research: Developing Ethical Doctrine, Secular and Religious

Ethics can be an uncomfortable field when faced with astounding breakthroughs in scientific research that could change the face of medicine. The sequencing of the human genome in the Human Genome Project that started in 1990 was effectively completed at the turn of this millennium. Subsequent discoveries about many gene traits have substantively ensconced values discourse into the molecular landscape of the human condition. Closely related to the importance of gene discoveries was the achievement in 1998 of isolating and cultivating human embryonic stem cells (“hESCs”). The discovery of this technique occurred over twenty-five years ago in mice and over ten years ago in primates. These marvels raise complex ethical dilemmas for scientists who seek to develop a multitude of treatments and therapies for a plethora of diseases and debilities. Many examples of the high hopes for hESC research could be provided, such as hESCs possibly soon becoming a resource of hematopoietic cells whose transplantation today provides the most likely pathway to cure many diseases. This Article focuses upon a particularly complex debate around the ethical legitimacy of hESC research. The timeliness of this debate is manifested by the Executive Order of President Barack Obama on March 9, 2009 to permit federal funding for embryonic stem cell