The use of the principle of cooperation to justify specific forms of embryonic stem cell research and therapies

Since their first successful derivation in 1998, human embryonic stem cells (hES) have received extraordinary public attention in matters of medical research. These stem cells have generated much excitement, scrutiny and ethical controversy because of their great medical promises insofar as they can develop in theory into any tissue type in the body and may provide many future therapeutic uses.; Nonetheless, research on these stem cells evokes significant scrutiny and continuing controversy because of the origin of their immortalized cell lines. The ethical dilemma is that immortalized cell lines are created from stem cells extracted from human blastocysts (sometimes referred to as early embryos) in a process that at present unavoidably results in their death. Most of the ethical challenges posed by such research would be resolved if non-embryonic cell sources can be developed or if the extraction of the stem cells can be done by avoiding the death of the human blastocysts as early embryos. Since such other sources or methods are currently unavailable, the research and its potential therapies continue to elicit debate in health care ethics and in public policy.; The dissertation addresses a central ethical dilemma in this debate by considering possible ways of justifying hES research and concomitant future treatments for those who seek to respect human life from its inception. The analysis adopts the ethical principle of cooperation to resolve as much as possible of this ethical dilemma. Some hES research and potential therapies utilizing immortalized stem cell lines may be justified under the principle of cooperation. But, hES research and therapies that entail the ongoing destruction of early embryos remain ethically problematic for those who seek to respect all human life from its inception, including the human blastocyst and early embryo. The argument concludes by indicating how the ethical principle of cooperation can guide both personal decisions and public policies in the continuing debate on hES research.