33
views
0
recommends
+1 Recommend
0 collections
    0
    shares
      • Record: found
      • Abstract: found
      • Article: found
      Is Open Access

      A 14-day limit for bioethics: the debate over human embryo research

      research-article
      BMC Medical Ethics
      BioMed Central
      Embryo research, Value pluralism, Compromise, Beneficence, Warnock report

      Read this article at

      Bookmark
          There is no author summary for this article yet. Authors can add summaries to their articles on ScienceOpen to make them more accessible to a non-specialist audience.

          Abstract

          Background

          This article explores the reasons in favour of revising and extending the current 14-day statutory limit to maintaining human embryos in culture. This limit is enshrined in law in over a dozen countries, including the United Kingdom. In two recently published studies (2016), scientists have shown that embryos can be sustained in vitro for about 13 days after fertilisation. Positive reactions to these results have gone hand in hand with calls for revising the 14-day rule, which only allows embryo research until the 14th day after fertilisation.

          Main text

          The article explores the most prominent arguments in favour of and against the extension of the 14-day limit for conducting research on human embryos. It situates these arguments within the history of the 14-day limit. I start by discussing the history of the 14-day limit in the United Kingdom and the reasons behind the decision to opt for a compromise between competing moral views. I then analyse the arguments that those who are generally in favour of embryo research put forward in support of extending the 14-day rule, namely (a) the argument of the beneficence of research and (b) the argument of technical feasibility (further explained in the article). I then show how these two arguments played a role in the recent approval of two novel techniques for the replacement of faulty mitochondrial DNA in the United Kingdom. Despite the popularity and widespread use of these arguments, I argue that they are ultimately problematic and should not be straightforwardly accepted (i.e. accepted without further scrutiny). I end by making a case for respecting value pluralism in the context of embryo research, and I present two reasons in favour of respecting value pluralism: the argument of public trust and the argument of democracy.

          Conclusion

          I argue that 14-day limit for embryo research is not a valuable tool despite being a solution of compromise, but rather because of it. The importance of respecting value pluralism (and of respecting different views on embryo research) needs to be considered in any evaluation concerning a potential change to the 14-day rule.

          Related collections

          Most cited references83

          • Record: found
          • Abstract: found
          • Article: not found

          Self-organization of the in vitro attached human embryo.

          Implantation of the blastocyst is a developmental milestone in mammalian embryonic development. At this time, a coordinated program of lineage diversification, cell-fate specification, and morphogenetic movements establishes the generation of extra-embryonic tissues and the embryo proper, and determines the conditions for successful pregnancy and gastrulation. Despite its basic and clinical importance, this process remains mysterious in humans. Here we report the use of a novel in vitro system to study the post-implantation development of the human embryo. We unveil the self-organizing abilities and autonomy of in vitro attached human embryos. We find human-specific molecular signatures of early cell lineage, timing, and architecture. Embryos display key landmarks of normal development, including epiblast expansion, lineage segregation, bi-laminar disc formation, amniotic and yolk sac cavitation, and trophoblast diversification. Our findings highlight the species-specificity of these developmental events and provide a new understanding of early human embryonic development beyond the blastocyst stage. In addition, our study establishes a new model system relevant to early human pregnancy loss. Finally, our work will also assist in the rational design of differentiation protocols of human embryonic stem cells to specific cell types for disease modelling and cell replacement therapy.
            Bookmark
            • Record: found
            • Abstract: found
            • Article: not found

            Self-organisation of the human embryo in the absence of maternal tissues

            Remodelling of the human embryo at implantation is indispensable for successful pregnancy. Yet it has remained mysterious because of the experimental hurdles that beset the study of this developmental phase. Here, we establish an in vitro system to culture human embryos through implantation stages in the absence of maternal tissues and reveal the key events of early human morphogenesis. These include segregation of the pluripotent embryonic and extra-embryonic lineages and morphogenetic re-arrangements leading to: generation of a bi-laminar disc, formation of a pro-amniotic cavity within the embryonic lineage, appearance of the prospective yolk sac, and trophoblast differentiation. Using human embryos and human pluripotent stem cells, we show that the reorganisation of the embryonic lineage is mediated by cellular polarisation leading to cavity formation. Together, our results indicate that the critical remodelling events at this stage of human development are embryo-autonomous highlighting the remarkable and unanticipated self-organising properties of human embryos.
              Bookmark
              • Record: found
              • Abstract: not found
              • Article: not found

              Nano-ethics as NEST-ethics: Patterns of Moral Argumentation About New and Emerging Science and Technology

                Bookmark

                Author and article information

                Contributors
                giulia.cavaliere@kcl.ac.uk
                Journal
                BMC Med Ethics
                BMC Med Ethics
                BMC Medical Ethics
                BioMed Central (London )
                1472-6939
                30 May 2017
                30 May 2017
                2017
                : 18
                : 38
                Affiliations
                ISNI 0000 0001 2322 6764, GRID grid.13097.3c, Department of Global Health & Social Medicine, , King’s College London, ; London, UK
                Article
                198
                10.1186/s12910-017-0198-5
                5450057
                28558751
                e0dba88b-6f9e-4184-8678-fff66108a942
                © The Author(s). 2017

                Open AccessThis article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver ( http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.

                History
                : 17 October 2016
                : 22 May 2017
                Funding
                Funded by: FundRef http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/100004440, Wellcome Trust;
                Award ID: WT108623/Z/15/Z
                Award Recipient :
                Categories
                Debate
                Custom metadata
                © The Author(s) 2017

                Medicine
                embryo research,value pluralism,compromise,beneficence,warnock report
                Medicine
                embryo research, value pluralism, compromise, beneficence, warnock report

                Comments

                Comment on this article