Trading Lives or Changing Human Nature: The Strange Dilemma of Embryo-Based Regenerative Medicine

Document Type

Book Chapter

Publication Date

2009

Subject: LCSH

Medicine -- Philosophy, Medical ethics, Embryonic stem cells--Research, Human embryo

Disciplines

Business Administration, Management, and Operations

Abstract

It is, perhaps, the most important scientific advance in the past one hundred years, and its potential is not even close to realization. It is the most controversial technology imaginable, an improbable combination of the abortion, cloning, fetal tissue, transplantation, gene therapy, animal rights and regenerative medical technology debates, raising worries about women in research, sex, the regulation of in vitro fertilization (IVF) clinics, the danger of changing the human germ line, and the war against aging. Before it is developed, some of the most powerful politicians on earth will find themselves forced to modify deeply entrenched views, and a few dozen scientists will become billionaires through patents on bits and parts of embryos.

Comments

Volume 102 of the series Philosophy and Medicine. Buy chapter, book or ebook here.

DOI

10.1007/978-1-4020-8967-1_7

Publisher Citation

McGee G. Trading lives or changing human nature: the strange dilemma of embryo-based regenerative medicine. Ip, King-Tak, ed. The Bioethics of Regenerative Medicine, 2009. pp. 93-106. ISBN: 978-1-4020-8966-4

Share

COinS