Deriving Sperm and Eggs from Human Skin Cells: Facilitating Community Discussion

Abstract

The Hinxton Group, an International Consortium on Stem Cells, Ethics and Law has issued a Consensus Statement, The Science, Ethics and Policy Challenges of Pluripotent Stem-Cell Derived Gametes (2008) to ‘inform public discussion about the state of the science and its potential social implications and to make recommendations about policy and practice’. 1 The language in the Statement is clear but community discussion may be better facilitated by starting from the imagined viewpoint of the listener than from that of scientists explaining what the research involves and where it may lead. The following illustration shows how this might work in discussing this new technology. It suggests a method for scientists with detailed knowledge and specialisation to talk to a wide audience about their research and its implications.

Keywords: stem cells, skin cells. ethics and law

JEL Classification: K00, K13, K49