David Goodhue - AHN Reporter
Baltimore, MD (AHN) - About 40 medical professionals, including scientists, bioethicists, lawyers and science journal editors, are calling for the development of guidelines for researching stem cells derived from eggs and sperm, even though their use may be decades away.
Debra Mathews, a lead author of the a paper published in the July issue of the journal Cell Stem Cell, and the assistant director of science programs at the Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics, said the guidelines should be developed in anticipation of societies potential concerns with using pluripotent stem cells from developed eggs and sperm.
"Science has always moved faster than social debate or society's ability to grapple with these issues," Mathews said in a statement.
Use of these stem cells, could include the creation of sperm and eggs for in vitro fertilization, embryo selection based on genetic profiles and the creation of embryos from the tissues of fetuses, children and dead people.
"Because derived-gamate research will require the creation and destruction of human embryos, this line of research will be morally objectionable to those who imbue human embryos with full moral status, and those objections must be addressed," the authors stated in the report.
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