Chapter 10 - Stem cell therapies for neurodegenerative disorders: An ethical analysis

Abstract

Neurodegenerative disorders are characterized by progressive morphological or functional neuronal alterations, most of them without any curative treatments, and being often associated with a negative outcome. Stem cell therapies have been tested for some neurological disorders starting with the 1970s with little to moderate success. However, with the recent developments in molecular medicine, including the development of induced pluripotent stem cells, or genetic engineering using technologies such as crispr/cas9, they have, once again, caught the public eye. In this chapter, we will focus our attention toward three main ethical issues surrounding stem cell therapies for neurodegenerative disorders. First, we will talk about the ethical acceptability of sham surgery, as clinical trials aimed toward testing need a control group, and sham surgery was seen as the most plausible candidate. Next, we will focus our attention on the risk–benefit analysis of using stem cell therapies in neurodegenerative disorders. In the last part of the chapter we will analyze the ethical issues surrounding the use of induced pluripotent stem cells for neurodegenerative disorders, with an emphasis on their moral status.