Source or Resource? Human Embryo Research as an Ethical Issue

Abstract

Abstract A central consideration in the debate about the ethics and policy of research on human embryos is the moral status of the preimplantation embryo.1 Broadly speaking, three philosophical views of this question have been articulated. The first two views do not see human embryo research as an ethical issue as such, but rather as a scientific, political, or ideological question. One view contends that the early embryo has full moral status, especially in light of its possession of the necessary and sufficient genetic complement for biological development into a human being or person. Those who affirm such a perspective are characteristically opposed to biomedical research on the unimplanted human embryo on the grounds that it violates the moral respect and humanity of the embryo. A second position holds that the developing embryo, at least during the period immediately after fertilization and for some time thereafter (e.g., until attainment of sentience) has negligible moral status.2 As a cluster of developing cellular materials, the embryo is an “object” for medical research and manipulation. On this understanding, research on the unimplanted human embryo is primarily a technical question under the domain of the scientific method because the embryo is not vested with moral value or may be assessed as “property.”