"Stem Cells Without Moral Corruption"

In today's Washington Post, Robbie George and bioethicist Eric Cohen expand the moral critique of South Korean researcher Hwang Woo Suk's embryonic stem cell (ESC) project beyond the fraudulent data he reported:

Hwang's violation involved the exploitation of women, who undergo a risky and unpleasant procedure -- first, ovarian hyperstimulation, then the insertion of a needle into their ovaries to procure the wanted oocytes -- with no medical benefit to themselves. In the attempt to produce a single cloned embryo, thousands of eggs were harvested and used as raw materials. . . .

In the end, the lesson of the cloning scandal is not simply that specific research guidelines were violated; it is that human cloning, even for research, is so morally problematic that its practitioners will always be covering their tracks, especially as they try to meet the false expectations of miraculous progress that they have helped create. . . .

Instead of engaging in fraud and coverup, or conducting experiments that violate the moral principles of many citizens, we should look to scientific creativity for an answer. Since the cloning fraud, many scientists -- such as Markus Grompe at Oregon Health & Science University and Rudolf Jaenisch at MIT -- have been doing just that. And others, such as Kevin Eggan at Harvard, may have found a technique, called "cell fusion," that would create new, versatile, genetically controlled stem cell lines by fusing existing stem cells and ordinary DNA. Scientists in Japan just announced that they may have found a way to do this without even needing an existing stem cell line.

The ongoing development of stem-cell research that avoids the moral problems of creating and destroying embryos is certainly welcome news.  One nit: I wonder if others who know more about this think that there also significant dangers of hype and pressure for results concerning the non-embryonic research.

(Thanks to MOJ reader and St. Thomas law student Kelly Crow for the pointer.)

Tom