Ethical Rights of Genetic Engineering - Essay Example

?Is genetic engineering ethical right? Genetic engineering promises to change a lot of things in the medical field including cure to genetic diseasesand improved understanding of the human, plants, animals and microorganisms genomes. Stem cell research is a field in genetic engineering that is capable of eradicating all genetic diseases and other conditions. It involves using cells that are not specialized and making them to practically any organ or body part. This field of biotechnology has been embraced by many people across the world. However, there are some situational and consequential/Utilitarianism ethical issues that arise from the technology. Ethics is concerned with what is right or what is wrong. Defining ethics for stem cell research is quite challenging. Researchers and scientists have been focusing on the risks of the stem cell research and any issues and concerns that are raised by the general society. Some researchers claimed that they do not know exactly where to draw the line regarding ethics in stem cell research when scientists organized a panel to discuss the ethical issues that may arise in this field (Nathan, 2006). Situational ethics depend on the situation of something at a given time and applying the moral principles to what has been done to determine whether it is right or wrong. Situational ethics do not have adherence to specific rules and is based on the greater good. The person has to do what is right morally to achieve the goals of situational ethics. However, there are some things which are deemed good but they are wrong in some ways. This makes such things to be rejected by some people despite agreement that they have sustainable solutions. For example, the stem cell research is widely accepted by all people. However, the source of the stem cells is considered wrong as it increased immorality (Oxford Dictionaries, 2013). On the other hand, Utilitarianism ethics which are also known as consequential ethics are based results of an action. If the consequences are good, then the consequences are morally right but when the consequences are bad, then the act is termed as morally wrong. In the stem cell research, the use of blastocysts as source of stem cells leads to death of the expected child. As it is widely believed, the life of a person starts immediately the sperm fuses with an ovum. As such, when a blastocyct is used, the embryo that would have grown to be fetus and a child is killed (Sinnott-Armstrong, 2012). Stem cell research can change the medical field dramatically, by providing cure for genetic diseases but has been faced with a number of situational and consequential ethical issues which have to be addressed to maximize on the benefits of this field. Embryonic stem cell research is based on undifferentiated cells in the blastocysts. This is a round ball like structure which is formed immediately after fertilization of the egg by the sperm. Its formation starts in the fifth day after fertilization when the zygote has settled on the wall of the uterus. Blastocysts are made up of cells which are to form all the parts of the body during the pregnancy. As such, the cells are differentiating at a very high rate. Since most of the cells are not differentiated, they can be used by scientists and researchers to form any part of the body. The fact that there are many undifferentiated cells that can be obtained from a single blastocyct makes the scientists and researchers to prefer them for stem cell research. Blastocysts for obtaining stem cell research are obtained in several ways. One, scientists and researchers are said to have agreements with abortion clinics. The agreement is for the clinics to surrender viable blastocysts to the scientists and researchers within a given period of time. In this case, when the clinics come across aborted embryos that would be good candidates for obtaining stem cells, they store them and pass them to the stem cell research laboratories for obtaining the cells. The situational ethical question here is whether it is morally right to take the embryos and use them to obtain stem cells. There are many people who believe that the life of human beings starts immediately after conception. They claim that the blastocyct is a human being in the embryonic stage and will eventually become a human being. Others believe that an embryo can be protected from the 14th days hence forth as that is the time it can be confirmed that actually it is an embryo. Some people refute this claim stating that human life starts after birth (Hug, 2011). Edmund Pellegrino, a professor of medical ethics at Georgetown University and the chairman of the Council of Bioethics chosen by President Bush confirms that Human life starts at conception. Richard Doerflinger the deputy director of United States Conference of Catholic Bishops confirmed the same when he testified before Congress on the ethics of stem cell research in 2004. In fact, the church and religious organizations as well as some individuals around the world support this claim. After all, it is beyond reasonable doubt that in deed the zygotes become human beings. They have life from the onset of conception and that is why they continue developing till they are ready to be born (Mehlman, n.d). Secondly, there have been consistent claims that some research facilities are commercializing the embryos. In this case, they encourage women to go for abortions ate their clinics and pay them a small stipend for agreeing to. They specifically allow women who got pregnant by mistake to abort at their facilities. In some countries for example Britain, research facilities are allowed to use embryo remains for stem cell research as long as they facility obtains permission from the aborting woman. In addition, some women feel that donating embryos research is ethically correct basing on several situational view points. They agree that donating embryos allows researchers to have grounds to make the lives of many people in the world better (Pfeffer, 2008). This has not been received well by religious leaders and ethics experts in countries where abortion is legal (Doerflinger, 1999). One of the view points is that using embryos is dehumanizing the humans and stripping them off their dignity. After all, they are alive and deserve the respect and protection other humans get. They claim that this may encourage some women to get pregnant specifically to go to these research facilities to benefit monetarily. While it may seem illogical, there are people who go through hardships and would do anything to make that extra money. Assuming that the scientists and researchers are looking for embryos that are less than ten days and the woman can get pregnant, what would prevent her from getting pregnant deliberately, wait for five days and go to the research facility to abort? Other women may be compelled to get pregnant and abort an embryo as part of assisting in research (Hale, 2010). This has been the big question among many ethical experts across the world and seems to add up looking at it logically. At the same time, there are claims that some facilities may take advantage of fertilized embryos. Taking into account couples who cannot conceive, women are given drugs to produce eggs which are fertilized with the donor sperms. After fertilization, two to four fertilized eggs are implanted into the women and the rest are stored for future use. However, most of the facilities claim that the fertilized embryos would be destroyed after some time. It is believed that stem cells maybe obtained from the embryos are to be destroyed for stem cell research. A scientist, John Harris claims that it is morally right to reproduce despite the knowledge that a large proportion of the embryos will fail and die. In that regard, it is morally correct to reproduce embryos for other purposes including killing them and obtaining cells for stem cell research (Chan and Harris, 2010). There may be consequential ethics arising from stem cell research. Some experts have been questioning whether it would be ethically correct to use just one embryo to provide medicine for a person with Parkinson’s disease. There are a number of people who would support this analogy especially those that believe that human life starts after birth. At the same time, some would argue that as long as aborted embryos are used, then it would be fine to save the life of such a person. On the contrary, the people that believe that human life starts at conception would not agree with this theory. By the use of embryos, they believe that the life of some human beings, embryos in this case is traded for the life of another for example in the case of medical solutions for genetic diseases (Trinity International University center for Bioethics and Human Dignity, 2009). In addition to these consequential ethics, there are claims that clinical trials of stem cell research have not been successful. Trials done with the aim of producing cure for certain conditions indicated the formation of malignant tumors. This would be disastrous for the people that would be cured using stem cells. They would be cured of a condition only to end up with cancer. Another concern that has been realized with these cells is unstable gene expression. In this case, gene expression involving these cells does not work as it would be expected. This would mean that some cells are expressed while others are not expressed and could lead to health disaster as well. It was also realized that some of the cells are not compatible with some tissues. At the same time, it is evident that the genetic variation may cause organ rejection when stem cells are introduced to another body system (Wert and Mummery, 2003). Another ethical issue regarding stem cell research is the egg harvesting procedure. This procedure is quite uncomfortable unlike what most people think. It requires many visits to the clinics, a umber 9f injections and a minor surgery. Hormones are used to manipulate the body of women to produce many eggs at ago. While this may prove important for the production of many embryos, the body of the women is left imbalanced hormonally. The ovaries are stimulated continuously and lead to what the scientists call Ovarian Hyper Stimulation Syndrome. This condition leads to a number of side effects for example vomiting, nausea, and diarrhea in the short term and increased weight, production of serous which settles in the spaces between organs and difficulties in breathing in the long term (Beeson and Lippman, 2006). In addition, some of the drugs that are used for ovarian stimulation are not well known. There is no enough data of for example Lupron which is widely used for this purpose. As many as 6,000 complaints and 25 death cases involving the use of Lupron were reported in the United States in 1999. Essentially, it means that when women undergo this procedure to assist some people, they remain with side effects some of which may change their lives forever. It is worrying that women who reported donating eggs were not informed of the potential risks of the procedure in the respective fertility clinics they visited. It would seem that the fertility clinics are just out to manipulate women just to get the eggs, which they need for the stem cell research without caring what happens to those women the moment they set foot out of the clinic (Beeson and Lippman, 2006). Stem cell research is probably the best research related procedure to be invented in the 20th century. This procedure promises to have cure for diseases that have been deemed incurable. While it is widely accepted, the source of the stem cells has generated many situational and consequential ethical issues. Addressing these issues would go a long way in curing many diseases. Scientists, religious leaders, the government and the general public have to be involved in determining the ethical boundaries of the stem cell research process to make it successful and worthwhile thereby making a mark in the lives of some people. References Beeson, D and Lippman, A., 2006. Egg harvesting for stem cell research: medical risks and ethical problems. Forthcoming Issues, 13 (1). Chan, S and Harris, J., 2010. Consequentialism without Consequences: Ethics and Embryo Research. Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics, 19(10), pp.61-74. Doerflinger, R., 1999. The Ethics of Funding Embryonic Stem Cell Research: A Catholic Viewpoint. Kennedy Institute of ethics Journal, 9(2), pp.137-150. Hale, V., 2010. The Conflict of Aborted Fetus' Being Used in Stem Cell Research Continues to Linger: Should We Use Aborted Fetus' to Perform Stem Cell Research? [online] Yahoo Voices. Available at :< http://voices.yahoo.com/the-conflict-aborted-fetus-being-used-stem-cell-5474685.html?cat=68> [Accessed 08 December 2013]. Hug, K., 2011. Embryonic stem cell research: an ethical dilemma. [online] Euro Stem Cell Organization. Available at: [Accessed 08 December 2013]. Mehlman, M., n.d. The Ethics of Embryonic Stem Cell Research. [online] Bioethics. Available at: [Accessed 08 December 2013]. Nathan, A., 2006. Panel debates ethics of genetic engineering. [online] Duke Chronicles. Available at: http://www.dukechronicle.com/articles/2006/10/26/panel-debates-ethics-genetic-engineering Oxford Dictionaries, 2013. Situation ethics. [online] Available at: [Accessed 08 December 2013]. Pfeffer, N., 2008. What British women say matters to them about donating an aborted fetus to stem cell research: A focus group study. Social Science and Medicine, 66(12), pp.2544-2554. Sinnott-Armstrong, W., 2012. Consequentialism. [online] The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Available at: http://plato.stanford.edu/cgi-bin/encyclopedia/archinfo.cgi?entry=consequentialism [Accessed 08 December 2013]. Trinity International University center for Bioethics and Human Dignity, 2009. An Overview of Stem Cell Research. [online] Available at: http://cbhd.org/stem-cell-research/overview [Accessed 08 December 2013]. Wert, G. and Mummery, C., 2003. Human embryonic stem cells: research, ethics and policy. Human Reproduction, 18(4), pp.672-682. Read More