Congressional panels and the media usually approach the stem- cell controversy by asking, \When does life begin?"" and ""When does an embryo become a person?""
In a seminar on stem cell ethics Thursday, Dr. Norman Fost said these questions are unanswerable, and hence irrelevant. He said a better question is, ""What specific stem- cell research should be permitted, and under what restrictions?""
Fost is a UW-Madison pediatrics professor at the Medical School and founder and director of its Medical Ethics Program. He addressed a group of students, identifying the most frequently cited arguments for and against stem-cell research.
Stem cells are embryonic cells that have the potential to develop into any type of biological cell. Prospective results from stem cell research could include creating insulin-producing cells for diabetics or nerve cells for paralysis victims.
Arguments against stem-cell research, Fost said, state that an embryo has the potential to become a person, and we cannot morally perform research on it. Fost countered that if cloning techniques become commonplace, every cell in the human body would have the potential to become a human being.
""We'd need prohibitions against brushing our hair, washing our skin or losing blood from a cut, because we'd be destroying cells that have the potential to become humans,"" he said.
Instead of arguing if an embryo is a person, Fost said researchers should be governed by how close the embryo is to personhood.
""The more developed the embryo's neural system, the tighter the restrictions should be,"" he said. ""Embryos should be treated with respect and not simply as biological samples.""
The UW Bioethics Advisory Committee agrees, saying embryo research should be used only if there are no alternatives and never for trivial purposes.
Fost said Congressional discussion is centered on federal funding and no longer on the status of the embryo. He said there is strong political consensus in favor of funding therapeutic cloning research, but Fost does not expect federal policy to change under the current presidential administration.
Fost's lecture was part of a graduate seminar series in nutritional sciences.
""At first glance, there's not an obvious link between nutritional sciences and stem-cell research,"" said department Chair Denise Ney, director of the program. ""But the principles of research ethics span across all sciences.\
