Resources on the Ethics of Human Stem Cell Research
By Louis Guenin

Any program of research concerning human stem cells places moral demands upon investigators at least insofar as the research uses human tissues. In fulfillment of a moral view originating with Kant, we constrain ourselves to respect the autonomy of every prospective tissue donor. Our concern for donor autonomy is not peculiar to the practice of stem cell research, but arises with respect to all research involving human subjects. We have installed, or so we think, an institutional protection of autonomy. The protection takes the form of the rule that an investigator may accept a tissue donation only from a donor who, understanding the ramifications of donation, freely consents thereto.

Embryonic stem cell research poses a moral problem that, in the general case of human subjects research, we do not encounter. In the general case, the investigator is obliged to take every effort to protect the donor’s welfare. In the case of embryonic stem cell research, the typical experiment will consume its embryo subject. Are embryo-destructive experiments morally permissible? To advance beyond commentary and opinion, of which there is an ample supply, and to allow the interested reader to understand this issue rigorously, the following bibliography sets forth works in which the reader will see the fundamental arguments fully and concisely presented. The bibliography also includes sources bearing on a controversial special case of human embryo use, the nonprocreative use of cloning.

I. THE MORAL STATUS OF THE HUMAN EMBRYO

II. EMBRYONIC STEM CELL RESEARCH

III. THE MORALITY OF SOMATIC CELL NUCLEAR TRANSFER

Updated: November 12, 2003