Journal of Student Research 2016

Journal Student Research

Stem Cell Ethics Achieving these aims is essential to advance healthcare and improve the hap piness and wellbeing of people throughout the world.

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NIH funding.

The NIH makes embryonic stem cell lines available for NIH-fund ed research (NIH Human Embryonic Stem Cell Registry Website, accessed April 2015); however, criteria for the acceptance of new lines dictates that payment cannot be offered for egg donation. There is a shortage of women willing to donate eggs to research under the current conditions. Harvard stem cell researchers Doug Melton and Kevin Eggan spent two years and several thousand dollars before finally securing a donor (Maher, 2008). This shortage of egg donors is creating a huge disparity between eggs that could be utilized in research and the number of eggs available. That was partially because egg donation is such a laborious process. It requires screenings, consultations, hormone injections, and surgical remov al of the eggs. This process requires multiple appointments and can take over a total of 50 hours and donor reimbursement in research tends to be limit ed to lost wages and child care, while in clinical egg donation donors may receive over $10,000 for the same procedure (Foohey, 2009). The current system offers little incentive for egg donation to stem cell research, making healthy, viable eggs to create new and robust stem cell lines scarce (Klitz man & Sauer, 2009). The ban on funding to egg donors should be removed, and instead the focus of concern should shift to determining what amount of funding is appropriate to pay donors. It seems fair that we seek to set this limit equal to the current market price paid for eggs in clinical use, as the procedures and demands of the process are similar. in stem cell research, as human cells best represent human development and are the most powerful tools for learning, discovery, and development of ther apeutics available in stem cell research. Exploring ethical issues of using the human preimplantation embryo, the Kantian perspective lacks a perfect duty to use or preserve the embryo. However, the imperfect duty of beneficence supports the use of stem cells to develop and provide advanced patient care. In addition, stem cell research is supported by the general utilitarian view as a viable, appropriate for the advancement of medical research and healthcare given that there is no suffering by the preimplantation embryo. Stem cell researchers require well characterized, healthy, and viable human stem cell lines (derived from eggs) to produce high quality, repro ducible works. We need to consider revising laws that prohibit egg donor compensation and create easier access to eggs for scientists. By allowing for egg donor compensation, researchers will have the materials necessary to cre ate new and robust stem cell lines and enhance stem cell research in the US. This is a necessary step to allow stem cell scientists to produce reliable, high quality research capable of supporting applications in translational medicine. Conclusion This essay has argued for the use of human preimplantation embryos