Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

The Ethical Basis for Using Human Embryonic Stem Cells in the Treatment of Aging

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
The Future of Aging

Abstract

This chapter argues that there is a compelling ethical basis for employing autologous human embryonic stem cells in the treatment of age-related diseases. The grounds for this argument are that such cells can be harvested from a pre-implantation embryo at a time in development when there is no possibility for the embryo to be a “person.” A blastocyst is a collection of a few hundred identical cells with the potential to become a person but is not yet a person. The mathematical framework for this assertion depends on a fuzzy-set definition of “personhood,” with all of its biological, philosophical, legal, and moral implications.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 169.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 219.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 219.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    BioEden, Inc. of Austin, TX is soliciting parents to preserve their children’s deciduous teeth on the grounds that the pulp contains potentially valuable stem cells. Another company in Florida (Cryo-Cell International) is attempting to sort through menstrual fluid and find valuable stem cells for storage in liquid nitrogen that will be of potential value to these women if they ever come down with an age-related disease in the future.

  2. 2.

    Award-winning scientific photographer and biologist David Barlow’s National Geographic Channel Program “Inside the Living Body” (Barlow 2007) showed for the first time on national television a high-resolution view of an egg ready to erupt from an ovary and begin its journey down the fallopian tube.

  3. 3.

    Note that the hypothetical Limbo of Infants among Catholics refers to a status of the unbaptized who die in infancy too young to have committed any personal sins, but not having been freed from so-called “original sin.” At least from the time of St. Augustine, theologians considered baptism to be essential for salvation and have continued to debate the fate of unbaptized innocents ever since. The Roman Catholic Church has recently rejected the Doctrine of Limbo with the hope that these infants may indeed attain Heaven; however, there are other theologians who hold the opposite opinion, namely that there is no afterlife state intermediate between salvation and damnation and therefore all unbaptized infants are damned to Hell. But in the case of spontaneously aborted pre-embryos how could there be such a baptismal ritual? As is typical, God never saw fit to reveal the subtlety of His ways to men until we acquired a technology sufficient to clearly establish with microscopy what was happening. This is not something that could have been anticipated or guessed beforehand.

  4. 4.

    Not everyone was as pleased with this decision as I was. In particular, 10 of the 18 members of the President’s Council on Bioethics created by former President Bush wrote a statement condemning the change in policy on the grounds that potential loopholes in the change could lead to reproductive cloning of human beings in the absence of specific legislation prohibiting such a practice (Meilaender et al. 2009).

References

  • Anonymous (1987) Donum Vitae, “Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith: Instruction Donum Vitae on Respect for Human Life at Its Origins and for the Dignity of Procreation” The Vatican, Rome, Italy

    Google Scholar 

  • Anonymous (2007) “World’s Youngest Baby Born In Miami: Amillia Taylor Born After 21 Weeks, 6 Days” Miami News, February 19 http://www.local10.com/news/11053141/detail.html

  • Anonymous (2008a) Dignitas Personae, Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith: Instruction Dignitas Personae on Certain Bioethical Questions (The Vatican, Rome, Italy; December 12) http://www.usccb.org/comm/Dignitaspersonae/Dignitas_Personae.pdf

  • Anonymous (2008b) Prenatal Radiation Exposure: A Fact Sheet for Physicians. CDC and California Public Health (2008) http://bepreparedcalifornia.ca.gov/EPO/Partners/HealthcareProviders/ForHealthcareProviders/PracticeGuidelinesFactSheets/BioterrorismPreparedness/Prenatal+Radiation+Exposure.htm

  • Anonymous (2008c) Rational Number. Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rational_number

  • Barlow D (2007) Inside the Human Body, National Geographic Channel TV, Sunday, September 16

    Google Scholar 

  • Brownback S, Landrieu M (2007) Human Cloning Prohibition Act S.1036 http://brownback.senate.gov/pressapp/record.cfm?id=271575

  • Bush GW (2003) State of the Union Address http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2003/ 01/20030128-20.html

  • Bush GW (2005) State of the Union Address http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2005/ 02/20050202-11.html

  • Bush GW (2006) State of the Union Address http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2006/ 01/20060131-10.html

  • Bush GW (2008) State of the Union Address http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2008/ 01/20080128-13.html

  • Caplan A (2003) The problem with ‘embryo adoption’: Why is the government giving money to ‘snowflakes’? MSNBC.COM http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3076556/

  • Chomsky N (1969) Aspects of the Theory of Syntax. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA

    Google Scholar 

  • Chung Y, Klimanskaya I, Becker S, Li T, Maserati M, Lu SJ, Zdravkovic T, Genbacev DO, Fisher S, Krtolica A, Lanza R (2008) Human embryonic stem cell lines generated without embryo destruction. Cell Stem Cell 2:113–117

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • da Vinci, L (c 1510-1) Anatomical Folio Figure E-1, p. 261 and Note 67, p. 285

    Google Scholar 

  • Dods M (1952) The City of God (translated from Saint Augustine), Great Books of the Western World, No.18; pp. 129–620, University of Chicago Press, Chicago

    Google Scholar 

  • Eisenberg JB (2005) Using Terri: The Religious Right’s Conspiracy To Take Away Our Rights. Harper Collins, San Francisco

    Google Scholar 

  • Fathers of the English Dominican Province (1952) The Summa Theologica of Saint Thomas Aquinas (translation) Vols. I and II. Great Books of the Western World, Nos. 19 and 20, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, IL

    Google Scholar 

  • Feuerherd J. (2006), Missouri vote may point to stem cell future. National Catholic Reporter, p. 1 (September 15)

    Google Scholar 

  • Fitzgerald M (2007) Q&A with William Hurlbut: Embryonic stem cells without embryos. MIT Technol Rev 110:6:22–23.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gazzaniga MS (2008) Human: The Science Behind What Makes Us Unique Ecco, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • George RP, Tollefsen C (2008) Embryo: A Defense of Human Life. Doubleday, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Goodell J (2007) Interview with Craig Venter, genetics pioneer. Rolling Stone Magazine, 1039:88–90

    Google Scholar 

  • Green R (2001) The Human Embryo Research Debate: Bioethics in the Vortex of Controversy. Oxford University Press, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Hanna J, Wernig M, Markoulaki S, Sun CW, Meissner A, Cassady JP, Beard C, Brambrink T, Wu LC, Townes TM, Jaenisch R (2007) Treatment of sickle cell anemia mouse model with iPS cells generated from autologous skin. Science 318:1920–1923

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Hayflick L (2000) Commentary: The future of aging. Nature 408:267–269

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Hendricks M (2006) Keyes and friends are way off base. Kansas City Star, p. B1 (September 13)

    Google Scholar 

  • Hughes J (2007) Cheating death: Dispatches from the war against mortality: Bringing people back from the brink, advances in diagnostics and medicine are yet again changing our definition of death – and may eventually break down the concept of death altogether. New Scientist, 196:44–45

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hurlbut WB (2008) Altered Nuclear Transfer (ANT). http://www.alterednucleartransfer.com

  • Hyun I, Hochedlinger K, Jaenisch R, Yamanaka S (2007) New advances in iPS cell research do not obviate the need for human embryonic stem cells. Cell Stem Cell 1:367–368

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Kim D, Kim CH, Moon JI, Chung YG, Chang MY, Han BS, Ko S, Yang E, Yul Cha K, Lanza R, Kim, KS (2009) Generation of human induced pluripotent stem cells by direct delivery of reprogramming proteins. Cell Stem Cell 5:472–476

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Klimanskaya I, Chung, YS, Becker S, Lu SJ, Lanza R. (2006) Human embryonic stem-cell lines derived from single blastomeres. Nature 444:481–485 [with Addendum on p. 512]

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Lindsay RB (2008) Future Bioethics: Overcoming Taboos, Myths, and Dogmas. Prometheus Books, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Locke J (1690) An Essay Concerning Human Understanding. In: Britannica Great Books Series, Vol. 35, pp. 93-395, University of Chicago Press, 1952

    Google Scholar 

  • Maherali N, Sridharan R, Xie W, Utikal J, Eminli S, Arnold K, Stadtfeld M, Yachechko R, Tchieu J, Jaenisch R, Plath K, Hochedlinger K (2007) Directly reprogrammed fibroblasts show global epigenetic remodeling and widespread tissue contribution. Cell Stem Cell 1:55–70

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Meilaender G, McHugh P, Carson B, Eberstadt N, Bethke Elshtain J, Gómez-Lobo A, Hurlbut W, Landry D, Lawler P, Schaub D (2009) Federal funding of embryonic stem cell research. Bioethics Forum (March 25). http://www.thehastingscenter.org/ Bioethicsforum/Post.aspx?id =3298

  • Meissner A, Jaenisch R (2005) Generation of nuclear transfer-derived pluripotent ES cells from cloned Cdx2-deficient blastocysts. Nature 439:212–215. http://www.wi.mit.edu/news/archives/ 2005/rj_1016.html

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Meunier BB, Yager RR, Zadeh LA, Eds. (2000) Uncertainty in Intelligent and Information Systems: Advances in Fuzzy Systems – Applications and Theory, Vol. 20, World Scientific Publishing Company

    Google Scholar 

  • Nakagawa M, Koyanagi M, Tanabe K, Takahashi K, Ichisaka T, Aoi T, Okita K, Mochiduki Y, Takizawa N, Yamanaka S (2008) Generation of induced pluripotent stem cells without myc from mouse and human fibroblasts. Nat Biotechnol 26:101–106

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Nakagawa M, Koyanagi M, Tanabe K, Takahashi K, Ichisaka T, Takahashi K, Yamanaka S (2006) Induction of pluripotent stem cells from mouse embryonic and adult fibroblast cultures by defined factors. Cell 126:663–676

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nardo D (2009) Cure Quest: The Science of Stem Cell Research. Compass Point Books, Mankato, MN.

    Google Scholar 

  • Obama B (2009) Removing barriers to responsible scientific research involving human stem cells (March 9). http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/Removing-Barriers-to-Responsible-Scientific-Research-Involving-Human-Stem-Cells.

  • Okita K, Ichisaka T, Yamanaka S (2007) Generation of germline-competent induced pluripotent stem cells. Nature 448:313–317

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Ord, T (2008) The scourge: Moral implications of natural embryo loss. Am J Bioethics 8:12–19

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Takahashi K, Tanabe K, Ohnuki M, Narita M, Ichisaka, T, Tomoda K, Yamanaka S (2007) Induction of pluripotent stem cells from adult human fibroblasts by defined factors. Cell 131:861–872

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Vesalius A (1543) De Humani Corporis Fabrica Librorum Septem and Epitome (Basel, Switzerland)

    Google Scholar 

  • Walter JJ, Shannon TA (2005) Contemporary Issues in Bioethics: A Catholic Perspective. Roman and Littlefield Publishers, Inc., New York, Footnote 5, Chapter 5, p. 68

    Google Scholar 

  • Wentworth Thompson D (1952) The History of Animals [Historia Animalium (by Aristotle)] (translation from the Greek) Book VII, Chapter 3, p. 109, Section 583b Great Books of the Western World, No. 9, The Works of Aristotle, Vol. II; University of Chicago Press, Chicago, IL

    Google Scholar 

  • Wernig M, Meissner A, Foreman R, Brambrink T, Ku M., Hochedlinger K, Bernstein BE, Jaenisch R (2007) In vitro reprogramming of fibroblasts into a pluripotent ES-cell-like state. Nature 448:318–324

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Wilcox AJ, Baird DD, Weinberg CR (1999) Time of implantation of the conceptus and loss of pregnancy. The New England J Med 340:1796–1799

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Xu N, Papagiannakopoulos T, Pan G, Thomson JA, Kosik KS (2009) MicroRNA-145 regulates OCT4, SOX2, and KLF4 and represses pluripotency in human embryonic stem cells. Cell 137:647–658

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Yu J, Vodyanik MA, Smuga-Otto K, Antosiewicz-Bourget J, Frane JL, Tian S, Nie J, Jonsdottir, GA, Ruotti V, Stewart R, Slukvin II, Thomson JA (2007) Induced pluripotent stem-cell lines derived from human somatic cells. Science 318:1917–1920

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Yu J, Hu K, Smuga-Otto K, Tian S, Stewart R, Slukvin II, Thomson JA (2009) Human induced pluripotent stem cells free of vector and transgene sequences. Science 324:797–801

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Zadeh LA (1975) The calculus of fuzzy restrictions. In: Zadeh LA, Fu K, Tanaka K, Shimura M (eds) Fuzzy Sets and Applications to Cognitive and Decision Making Processes, pp. 1–39. Academic, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Zadeh LA, Yage RR (1987) Fuzzy Sets and Applications: Selected Papers by L.A. Zadeh

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Molecular Biology, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Young Hall, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, 90095-1569, USA

    L. Stephen Coles

Authors
  1. L. Stephen Coles
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to L. Stephen Coles .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Intervene Biomedical, LLC, Box 478, Norco, CA, 92860, USA

    Gregory M. Fahy

  2. BioTime, Inc., 1301 Harbor Bay Parkway, Alameda, CA, 94502, USA

    Michael D. West

  3. Institute of Molecular Biology Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry Young Hall, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, 90095-1569, USA

    L. Stephen Coles

  4. Critical Care Research, Inc., 10743 Civic Center Drive, Rancho Cucamonga, CA, 91730, USA

    Steven B. Harris

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2010 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Coles, L.S. (2010). The Ethical Basis for Using Human Embryonic Stem Cells in the Treatment of Aging. In: Fahy, G.M., West, M.D., Coles, L.S., Harris, S.B. (eds) The Future of Aging. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-3999-6_4

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation