Understanding the ethical concerns that have shaped European regulation of human embryonic stem cell research

Abstract

Human embryonic stem cell research has generated much hope, but also fear and repulsion. National legislators, as well as the European Parliament, the European Patent Office and the European Court of Justice have had to make decisions relating to what is or is not allowed in the field of hESC research and patenting, and their decisions are often difficult to reconcile. In order to understand this divergence and the specific restrictions that different regulators impose, insight is needed into the different opinions regarding the moral status of the pre-implantation embryo (blastocyst), into the moral distinction between using IVF embryos donated for research versus creating embryos for research purposes, and into the moral distinction between producing and using hESC lines for non-commercial research and allowing such production and research in a commercial or industrial setting. While one need not agree that all of these perceived differences are in fact morally relevant, knowing that many people perceive them as being relevant is in itself valuable for understanding the debate and the decisions that different regulators make.