Contemporary Ethical Issues in Stem Cell Research

Abstract

Recent advancements in stem cell technologies bring the promise of finding treatments and cures to a wide range of conditions and diseases but also considerable ethical concerns. This chapter focuses on contemporary bioethical issues central to individuals’ participation in stem cell research as “human subjects.” It explores how the core ethical principles of beneficence, respect for persons, and justice may be implicated in research requiring donation of gametes, embryos, and somatic cells, and in clinical trials or innovative stem cell therapies. The first section addresses certain rights of individuals who donate biological materials for the purposes of human embryonic stem cell research, including the necessity of providing voluntary informed consent and how compensation for participation may affect the voluntariness of such consent. The second section evaluates ethical issues relating to the testing and using novel stem cell therapies in humans.