Embryonic stem cell research holds unique promise for developing therapies for currently incurable diseases and conditions, and for important biomedical research. However, the process through which embryonic stem cells are obtained involves the destruction of early human embryos. Katrien Devolder focuses on the tension between the popular view that an embryo should never be deliberately harmed or destroyed, and the view that embryonic stem cell research, because of its enormous promise, must go forward. She provides an in-depth ethical analysis of the major philosophical and political attempts to resolve this tension. One such attempt involves the development of a middle ground position, which accepts only types or aspects of embryonic stem cell research deemed compatible with the view that the embryo has a significant moral status. An example is the position that it can be permissible to derive stem cells from embryos left over from in vitro fertilisation but not from embryos created for research. Others have advocated a technical solution. Several techniques have been proposed for deriving embryonic stem cells, or their functional equivalents, without harming embryos. An example is the induced pluripotent stem cell technique. Through highlighting inconsistencies in the arguments for these positions, Devolder argues that the central tension in the embryonic stem cell debate remains unresolved. This conclusion has important implications for the stem cell debate, as well as for policies inspired by this debate.

About the Author
Katrien Devolder obtained a PhD in Philosophy at Ghent University in 2006, after which she was awarded a six-year Postdoctoral Research Fellowship by the Research Foundation Flanders. She conducted her postdoctoral work at the Bioethics Institute Ghent, Department of Philosophy and Moral Sciences, at Ghent University, as well as during long-term academic visits at several other universities, including the University of Oxford, Harvard University, and Princeton University. Between 2012 and 2014 she worked as an Assistant Professor at Ghent University, and from October 2014 onwards, she will be a Marie Curie Fellow at the Oxford Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics, Faculty of Philosophy, University of Oxford.

Reviews
As an academic bioethicist with experience in the clinical setting, it is important to me that context and morality are married. Devolder's book accomplishes this task nicely, beginning in the introduction with a consideration of the potential use of embryonic stem cell (if not the embryo as a whole) for the alleviation of pain and disease. She convincingly directs us towards our moral obligation to allieviate suffering, underscoring that embryonic stem cell research is thus a moral enterprise. * Ayesha Ahmad, London School of Economics, Times Higher Education *
In her small but well written and insightful monograph Katrien Devolder is focusing on these "middle-ground positions" together with technical solutions to the dilemma. The author has been working on reproductive ethics in general and on embryo and stem cell research ethics in particular for more than ten years. Her book is based on several previously published articles, but it is far more than a mere collection or a re-use of essays. * Marco Stier, Ethical Theory and Moral Practice *
Devolders study is a tour de force, exhibiting real skill and imagination in the use of analogies to test our moral intuitions...The Ethics of Embryonic Stem Cell Research is a solid contribution to our stem cell debates. Neither partisan nor committed to advocacy for any side, it displays epistemic honesty and exhibits the value of philosophical analysis at its best. * Ronald M. Green, Monash Bioethics Review *



Book Information
ISBN 9780199547999
Author Katrien Devolder
Format Hardback
Page Count 176
Imprint Oxford University Press
Publisher Oxford University Press
Weight(grams) 346g
Dimensions(mm) 222mm * 147mm * 16mm