Although iPSCs would still eliminate considerable health risks to women, such a development would complicate the ethical battle over the definition and protection of human life and the acceptable reasons for its creation or destruction. If iPSCs can be programmed to express the same potential as ESCs (including the development of the outer embryonic layers) as some scientists believe may be possible after further research, they could lose nearly all of their potential ethical high ground over natural ESCs. Research to date indicates iPSCs may be very similar to ESCs, except for their origin and inability to generate theĬell layers necessary for producing and directing development of a complete embryo. The use of iPSCs as an alternative to ESCs may eliminate both the health risks to the donor and the issues of appropriate compensation, as individuals would typically donate cells through a non-invasive procedure for research leading to the donor’s own therapeutic use. The egg donation process is often the most worrisome aspect of ESC research due to concerns for the women’s health during and after the invasive surgery controversy over appropriate compensation for a sometimes painful and considerable health risk and ethical disagreement over what essentially becomes the purchase of parts of the human body, orĬommodification. IPSCs, there is no unequal burden on women for supplying the necessary cells for the technology. If iPSCs turn out to be a useful alternative to ESC research, they will avoid the most significant concerns inįeminist ethics surrounding the issue. IPSCs have been touted as ethically uncomplicated alternatives to ESCs, so the ethics surrounding iPSCs are largely evaluated in comparison to those involving ESCs. Though these issues do not exhaust the list of ethical considerations of ESC research, they represent the chief topics occupying those interested in its ethical aspects. Additional ethical concerns surrounding such research include informed consent, improper inducement, and health and safety risks for womenĭonating eggs necessary for the creation of embryos via It is a controversial international issue, and many governing bodies have either banned the research altogether or placed restrictions on what may be done withĮSCs.
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Although iPSCs may appear to solve the controversy over the destruction ofĮmbryonic stem cell (ESC) research by involving only the genetic reprogramming of somatic cells, further analysis of the new technique and its subsequent ethical issues could potentially lessen some ethical advantages iPSCs seemingly hold over ESCs.ĮSC research is laden with ethical concerns, particularly regarding the ideas of personhood, human dignity, and justice toward humankind that arise from dealing with human life in one of its earliest forms, the embryo. IPSCs gained immediate international attention for their apparent similarity to embryonic stem cells after their successful creation in 2006 by Induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) and related technologies has caught the attention of scientists, activists, politicians, and ethicists alike. Ethics and Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells