Transcript Do the risks of such experiments with human

Key Words to be happy with
 Genetically modified food – food whose genetic
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composition is altered to boost yields, disease resistance
etc.
Designer babies – babies whose genetic makeup is
predetermined
Therapeutic gene therapy – using gene and stem cell
research to treat or cure diseases
Totipotent stem cells - master cell that can become any
kind of cell, present for first 14 days of embryo life.
Cloning – creating a form of life with identical genetic
structure.
IVF treatment – creating an embryo outside the womb
Embryo – a developing collection of cells up to eight weeks
old
Stem cell research
 Stem cells can change into other cells (nerve, muscle,
skin) eg mend hearts and repair bones. Click on link
below for useful Q and A.
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http://www.philosophicalinvestigations.co.uk/index.php?view=article&catid=57%3Ageneticengineering-and-embryo-research&id=155%3Aquestion-and-answer-stem-cellresearch&option=com_content&Itemid=54
 Cells in early embryos up to 14 days are totipotent (can
change into anything).
 Embryos are destroyed after fertilisation.
 May be taken from surplus IVF treatment, or grown
specially.
 Problem: may be rejected by patient as genetic
makeup will be different, unless patient’s own stem
cells are used.
Types of stem
cells
Adult
Embryo
Cloned
embryonic
All adults have
some, but they are
not totipotent
They are easily
collected from a 5
day embryo and
they are totipotent
Body tissue is
cloned to provide
exact genetic
match to patient
Evaluate the following views
 The consequences are unknown (cancers, deformities
etc), so it’s impossible to do the utilitarian calculation.
 A human life, even in embryo form, is sacred.
 This process is “playing God”.
 The embryo is just a cluster of cells, so the Kantian
argument “never use a human as just a means to an
end” cannot apply.
 The embryos used in IVF treatment are destroyed
anyway, so this is clearly a utilitarian gain.
Therapeutic cloning
 Create identical clone to the patient to harvest stem
cells/ bone marrow etc.
 Dolly the sheep was successfully cloned in 1997.
 In 2001 House of Lords legalised human embryo
cloning as long as they are destroyed within 14 days.
 Reproductive cloning is still banned (so I can’t try and
reproduce an exact copy of...me!).
 Is it moral to use some human beings as a means to an
end?
Has led some to create a child to save a child with a
terminal disease as in the film “My Sister’s Keeper”
(2009) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1078588/
Questions over Dolly the sheep
 After 430 manipulated eggs, only Dolly was
successfully reared.
 Others suffered abnormalities or miscarried.
 Dolly was put down at the age of six, suffering from a
progressive lung disease.
 She was found to be ageing faster than expected.
 Do the risks of such experiments with human embryos
outweigh potential benefits?
Designer babies: different cases
 Design a baby with a genetic makeup to save another
child. In 2003 the Hashmi family were allowed to
design such a baby to save their daughter.
 Design a baby to prevent miscarriage. Philippa
Handyside was permitted to design a baby with genes
to prevent miscarriage. (NB the genes were not
enhanced in any way, the embryo was simply chosen
from a number of fertilised eggs).
 Design a baby to create a super-child: intelligent, good
at games, disease free etc etc (illegal by 1990 Act)
Human Fertilisation and
Embryo Authority HFEA (1990)
Embryo research is allowed:
- to promote advances in fertility treatment
- to investigate congenital diseases
- to investigate causes of miscarriage
- to develop effective contraception
- to help detect genetic abnormalities
Right to a child issues
 Do the Hashmis have a right to a genetically enhanced
child to save another one?
 Does Philippa Handyside have the right to a child
through a miscarriage-free pregnancy?
 Do infertile couples have the right to IVF treatment
with/without a surrogate womb, free on the NHS?
How many chances should they have?
 Does a woman have the right to use the frozen sperm
of her dead husband? (Kantian principle of consent?)
 Do same sex couples have the right to a child by using
a surrogate mother?
Discuss
 “Children are a gift of God. There is no
right to a child.”
Roman Catholic Church (1990)
Roman Catholic Church view
 The Church teaches that medical research must refrain
from operations on live embryos, unless there is moral
certainty of not causing harm to the life or integrity of the
unborn child and mother, and on condition that the
parents have given free and informed consent.
 Since stem cell research on human embryos invariably
causes the death of those embryos, it too stands
condemned.
 In summary, the Catholic Church condemns as gravely evil
acts, both IVF, and stem cell research performed on IVF
embryos. See Donum Vitae (1995)
 http://www.newadvent.org/library/docs_jp02ev.htm
Have humans been cloned?
 Dr Hwang of South Korea claimed in 2006 to have
cloned the first human.
 The records were falsified and despite trying with over
2,000 eggs, no successful cloning took place.
“When our children become the products of our wills, created
by our design, to satisfy our desires, they are profoundly
dehumanized— they are not begotten, but made.”
Dr. Leon Kass
Issue 1: reductionism
 “You,” your joys and your sorrows, your memories and
your ambitions, your sense of personal identity and free
will, are in fact no more than the behaviour of a vast
assembly of nerve cells and their associated molecules.”
Francis Crick The Astonishing Hypothesis
 Dr Robert Song sees developments as shaped by the
“Baconian project”, the aim to maximise choice and
eliminate suffering....so human beings are reduced to
their genetic inheritance and children seen as an
addition to human happiness, a product of choice.
Issue 2: the slippery slope
 Because the technology exists to clone sheep, it is
inevitable that people will one day be cloned. So the
process must stop now.
 Mary Warnock argues: “The techniques for isolating and
developing embryonic stem cells are the same as those used for cloning
whole animals, and it was argued that there would now be no stopping
scientists from going on with the process. It is inevitable that the next
steps should follow. Therefore it is morally imperative to prohibit the
first step. I have never thought this a very strong form of argument.
After all there is no logical necessity determining that the second or
third step should follow the first. It is rather a reflexion on human
nature: once they have one thing, people will always demand more.”
Issue 3: equality
 There is a risk of a nightmare two-tier society, like the
film Gattaca portrays.
 Kantians using the principle of ends argue for the
absolute dignity and equality of all of us.
 Although Bentham and Mill protest that utilitarians
believe “everyone counts as one”, Mill’s higher and
lower pleasures imply the academic is superior to the
disabled person, because superior pleasures count
more.
Frankenfood: GM seeds
 GM seeds boost crop yields and promote disease
resistance.
 But allegations of exploitation of poor farmers as seed
self destructs and so cannot be re-sown. Click on link
below for article on Indian farmers.
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http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1082559/The-GM-genocide-Thousands-Indianfarmers-committing-suicide-using-genetically-modified-crops.html#ixzz0YMKyTDNU
 Fears that balance of nature will be destroyed as GM
seed wipes out natural seed.
Conclusions
 “Right to a child” is ambiguous: infertile couple is
different moral case from designing a baby to be
“superior”.
 Misery caused by infertility and inherited diseases
gives an overwhelming utilitarian case for IVF and
stem cell research...if risks can be managed.
 Natural Law theorists could support research under a
“preserve life” precept...but Roman Catholic Church
takes a strong view on the sanctity of the in vitro
embryo, whose destruction constitutes a “grave sin”.
 Kantians require a decision on whether an embryo is a
“person”, but would reject creating a life to save a life.