The Ethics of Regenerative Medicine: Beyond Humanism and Posthumanism

Abstract

Every decade or so proponents of a new technology promise that it will radically alter the practice of medicine. Thirty years ago, it was organ transplantation. Fifteen years ago, it was gene therapy. Today it is regenerative medicine. Regenerative medicine refers to procedures designed to restore degenerated tissue or cellular functioning. It includes, but not necessarily limited to, transplantation of cells to form new tissue (e.g., bone, muscle, liver, and neural tissue); implantation of bioartificial tissues constructed ex vivo using a biodegradable scaffold (e.g., bladders); drugs composed of genes, proteins, or antibodies (e.g., on the model of insulin); and stimulation of cells in vivo (e.g., by gene insertion).