Stem Cell Transplantation and Ethics: A European Overview

Abstract

Stem cell transplantation requires a source of stem cells. The potential use of human embryonic stem cells for research and therapy has created major ethical and political debates in Europe. The first section of this paper gives an overview of the official regulatory responses to the possibility of stem cell transplantation in a range of European jurisdictions. It focuses on the regulation of: (1) the use and production of embryonic stem cells, (2) the use of adult stem cells, and (3) the patenting of stem cell lines and products. The second section tries to unravel why regulatory responses have differed between different European countries, especially with regard to embryonic stem cells and focuses on two possible explanations for the differences: (1) ethical disagreement and (2) maintenance of regulatory consistency. It is argued that an exclusive focus on ethical disagreement cannot fully explain the differences in regulatory response, and that an understanding of the specific way in which regulations develop over time in each jurisdiction is crucial. Certain types of ethical consistency arguments can, for instance, only be mounted successfully if the jurisdiction in question already allows other forms of experiments involving human embryos. In the final section it is argued that the European regulatory developments in the future may be crucially dependent on whether actual stem cell products are developed that can potentially be traded across borders.