Main description:

Is it acceptable from an ethical point of view to use stem cells from human embryos for scientific research and clinical therapy? And what are the weaknesses and strengths of various opinions and positions when they are critically evaluated? These are the main problems dealt with in this book. The various chapters as a whole give a comprehensive, many-sided and balanced discussion of the subject. The book contains contributions from biological, medical, social, political, philosophical and theological perspectives.

The authors have been chosen because of their professional competence, many of them being respected scholars on a top international level. They give an updated contribution from their own discipline in order to enlighten the different aspects of the common theme. The authors cover various positions and evaluations with regard to the question of the use of embryonic stem cells for research and therapy.

The book is written for several audiences: a) scholars and professionals working with stem cell research or with the ethical questions arising from this field (people from biology, medicine, law, philosophy, theology etc.), b) advanced and graduate students within the same professional disciplines and c) politicians and the general public interested in the burning ethical problems which are intensively debated in many countries.

Contents:

Preface by Mahendra Rao Introduction by Lars Ostnor Biological and Medical Perspectives
1. The Moral Status of Human Embryos with Special Regard to Stem Cell Research and Therapy: Biological and Medical Perspectives
2. Steinar Funderud: Stem Cells: Sources and Clinical Applications
3. Ole Johan Borge: Alternative Means to Obtain Pluripotent Stem Cells
4. Havard Olstorn, Morten C. Moe, Mercy Varghese, Iver A. Langmoen: Neurogenesis and Potential Use of Stem Cells from Adult Human Brain
5. Joel C. Glover: Can We Use Human Embryonic Stem Cells to Treat Brain and Spinal Cord Injury and Disease?
6. William B. Hurlbut: Stem Cells, Embryos and Ethics: Is There a Way Forward? Social and political perspectives
7. LeRoy Walters: An Intercultural Perspective on Human Embryonic Stem Cell Research
8. Egbert Schroten: Human Embryo Research: The European Perspective
9. Theo A. Boer: Stem Cells, Pluralism, and Moral Empathy Philosophical perspectives
10. Dagfinn Follesdal: The Potentiality Argument and Stem Cell Research
11. Oyvind Baune: Can the Distinction Between the Moral and the Descriptive Support a Full Moral Standing of an Embryo?
12. Anthony Kenny: The Beginning of Individual Human Life
13. Ludger Honnefelder: Embryonic Stem Cell Research - Arguments of the Ethical Debate in Germany
14. Otfried Hoeffe: The Question of Human Cloning in the Context of the Stem Cell Debate Theological perspectives
15. Lars Ostnor: Stem Cells from Human Embryos for Research? The Theological Discussion within Christianity
16. Gunnar Heiene: Theological Arguments in the Human Stem Cell Debate: A Critical Evaluation
17. Monika Bobbert: Human Embryos and Embryonic Stem Cells - Ethical Aspects