Over the last two decades scientific developments have been proceeding at a rapid pace. Nowhere has this been more true than in human genetics. One cannot pick up the daily paper or listen to a news show without hearing of yet another new discovery, development or application of a new procedure.
There are two main problems with this steady stream of information: The information itself is becoming more and more complex and the applications are predicted to be revolutionary. Frequently the research is only at the very beginning stages. Much of this research has an ethical dimension. In this Update we'll take a look at the field of stem-cell research. We'll explain what stem cells are and why there are ethical concerns (Hall, 2).
Most Americans have had some sort of a biology course in high school; some have had a college-level course; but few have had specific courses in molecular genetics or bioengineering. Thus we may have some sort of general idea of the topic, but not grasp the real core issues. Several ethical issues were raised with the recent near-completion of the Human Genome Project (the project that identified and mapped the structure of human DNA)—privacy, potential disqualification for insurance, the possibility of predicting some aspects of one's health at birth, to name just a few. The technology goes forward, however, and often without sufficient breathing room to understand the technology, much less consider its implications.
This happened again with the debate over embryonic stem-cell research. Research on adult and embryonic stem cells of animals and humans has been going on for several years, and a national bioethics commission made some recommendations about this research. On August 9, 2001, President Bush announced his decision to allow the federal government to provide funding for research on 64 lines of embryonic stem cells.
