Scientists plan to differentiate pluripotent cells into specialized cells that could be used for transplantation. Pluripotent stem cells perpetuate themselves in culture and can differentiate into all types of specialized cells. STEM CELL RESEARCH offers great promise for understanding basic mechanisms of human development and differentiation, as well as the hope for new treatments for diseases such as diabetes, spinal cord injury, Parkinson’s disease, and myocardial infarction ( 1). This article provides a critical analysis of these issues and how they are addressed in current policies. These ethical and policy issues need to be discussed along with scientific challenges to ensure that stem cell research is carried out in an ethically appropriate manner. In any hSC research, however, difficult dilemmas arise regarding sensitive downstream research, consent to donate materials for hSC research, early clinical trials of hSC therapies, and oversight of hSC research. The reprogramming of somatic cells to produce induced pluripotent stem cells avoids the ethical problems specific to embryonic stem cell research. The derivation of pluripotent stem cell lines from oocytes and embryos is fraught with disputes about the onset of human personhood. However, human stem cell (hSC) research also raises sharp ethical and political controversies.
Stem cell research offers great promise for understanding basic mechanisms of human development and differentiation, as well as the hope for new treatments for diseases such as diabetes, spinal cord injury, Parkinson’s disease, and myocardial infarction.
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