CYIL vol. 8 (2017)

CYIL 8 ȍ2017Ȏ REFLECTIONS OF ETHICAL DEBATE IN THE INTERNATIONAL LAW REGULATION … alleviate suffering – even end it for some diseases – is so great in the medium term that I believe it would be immoral not to clone human embryos for this purpose.“ 23,24 Francis S. Collins, a head of the Human Genome Project which first sequenced the human genome until 2003, justifies the use of human embryos for stem cell research with a similar argument, even though more ambiguous: “First of all, I believe that the product of a sperm and an egg, which is the first cell that goes on to develop a human being, deserves considerable moral consequences. This is an entity that ultimately becomes a human. So I would be opposed to the idea of creating embryos by mixing sperm and eggs together and then experimenting on the outcome of that, purely to understand research questions. On the other hand, there are hundreds of thousands of such embryos in freezers at in vitro fertilization clinics. In the process of in vitro fertilization, you almost invariably end up with more embryos than you can reimplant safely. The plausibility of those ever being reimplanted in the future – more than a few of them – is extremely low. Is it more ethical to leave them in those freezers forever or throw them away? Or is it more ethical to come up with some sort of use for those embryos that could help people? I think that’s not been widely discussed.” 25 Professor Collins refers to the US legislation which prohibits the federal funding for research using newly created embryos but allows the funding of research on embryonic stem cell lines created before certain date. 26 It is more interesting for our purposes that he probably subscribes to a gradualist approach and uses a consequentialist calculus to prefer the possible benefits of research to the value of individual embryos. On the other hand, consequentialist reasoning may also be found among voices warning of problematic aspects of modern science. It will most likely warn of possible negative consequences of the depreciation of basic values such as respect for human life. A German- born American philosopher Hans Jonas, for example, argued that medical research needs to be subjected to ethical scrutiny because a possible deceleration of the fight against illnesses would not threaten the existence of society, while the degradation of ethical values could. 27 Even though this line of argument may exceed to a slippery slope as one of typical examples of logical fallacy, it might simply mean taking into account all reasonably foreseeable risks and assessing the risk-benefit ratio of certain research. Categorical moral reasoning approaches the problem quite oppositely. It states that normative properties of every act are always dependent on the inherent moral quality of the act, i.e. the act is morally good or wrong in itself. The categorical reasoning postulates absolute moral requirements consisting of categorical duties and rights which are equally valid in every situation. 28 This reasoning is often criticised as too narrow and dogmatic. One of the most 24 Prof. Wilmut later abandoned cloning in favour of working with iPSC, even though this step was not motivated by ethical concerns. See LEHRMAN, Sally, Dolly’s Creator Moves Away from Cloning and Embryonic Stem Cells. Scientific American. (1 August 2008.) accessed 8 September 2017. 25 Francis S. Collins in an interview in PAULSON, Steve, The believer. Salon. (7 August 2006.) accessed 8 September 2017. 26 Certain restrictions on funding and also regulation of patentability are used as tools of indirect regulation of stem cell research also in the European Union. 27 As cited in MUNZAROVÁ, Marta, Lékařský výzkum a etika. Grada Puslishing, Praha 2005, p. 27. 28 See SANDEL, Michael J., What’s The Right Thing To Do? The Moral Side of Murder. Harvard University. accessed 6 April 2017. 23 As cited in The Scotsman. Double standards. (1 July 2006.) accessed 8 September 2017.

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