All the application of cutting-edge, advanced biotech research never gets around the approvement by policies and politicians. Without the legislative and ethical restriction, the Pandora’s box will be opened. The upcoming consequences caused by that research without moral and ethical boundaries could be destructive. In this article, the 44th president of the United States, Obama allowed US federal funding of human embryonic stem cell research. His positive inclination towards stem cell research was advocated by some researchers. The research on stem cells could solve a lot of diseases that are complicated and currently “incurable”, for instance, Parkinson's disease and Alzheimer's disease. Just like what Douglas Melton, co-director of the Harvard Stem Cell Institute claimed, “The removal of a barrier that has stood in our way for 8 years will open important new areas of research and move the field forward more rapidly.” A small progress in this field will bring countless benefits and advantages.
Whereas there are also opposing voices, some antiabortionist strongly disagrees with Obama’s action on allowing the funding of embryonic stem cell research “The administration now steps onto a very slippery slope”, they argued. At the same time, the Legislative Director for the National Right to Life Committee announced that “many researchers will never be satisfied only with the so-called leftover embryos, says Douglas Johnson” The unstated conclusion for Douglas’ statement is that researchers will do unethical and immoral experiment on embryo, which make his argument seem like to be a slippery slope fallacy. Instead of providing evidence and proof against the deficiency of embryonic stem cell research logically and rationally, they refute and demonize stem cell research with the invalid assumption that the researchers are immoral.
On the other hand, we can’t neglect the potential danger stem cell research poses. This article was published in 2009 which is 15 years before, but the ethical issue discussed in this article still exists, and even becomes more radical, due to increasing the pro-life and feminism campaigns. Several questions for instance, “At what stage can an embryo be considered as a human being? Is it safe to use the unmatured stem cell technology as a treatment for humans? What about the animal experiment on stem cells? Whether the enormous investment has an equal return?” These remaining ethical questions and obstacles can only be solved through biological and political improvement and cooperation. In conclusion, The policies and laws instead of limiting the possibilities creativities on stem cell research, allow a more healthy and harmonious research environment for ongoing stem cell research throughout the world.
Reference:
Wood, H. B. (2009). In the news: Obama’s stem cell move. Nature Reviews. Neurology, 5(5), 236–236. https://doi.org/10.1038/nrneurol.2009.42