Research Synopsis

Ethical Issues in Stem Cell Research

Yale has a very active group of scholars working on issues related to the ethical issues of human stem cell research. Perhaps the most distinguished of the Yale faculty in this field is Dr. Gene Outka, Dwight Professor of Philosophy and Christian Ethics. In addition to publications, teaching and seminars in ethics related to SC research, Dr. Outka’s presentation entitled “The Ethics of Stem Cell Research” was included in intensive discussions and debate by the President’s Council on Bioethics in Washington DC in 2002. Additional scholars include Dr. Margaret Farley, Gilbert L. Stark Professor of Ethics in the Divinity School and Religious Studies Department. Dr. Farley has published and spoken publicly regarding ethics and stem cells and is co-director of the Interdisciplinary Center for Bioethics. Along with Dr. Robert Levine, Professor of Internal Medicine, and co-Director of the Interdisciplinary Center for Bioethics and with funding from the Donaghue Initiative in Biomedical and Behavioral Research Ethics, which is a subprogram of the Yale Interdisciplinary Center for Bioethics, Dr. Farley organized a special symposium entitled "Can We Get Around the Stem Cell Controversy?" with speakers including Drs. Diane Krause, Margaret Farley, and Robert Levine. Dr. Farley is internationally known for her thoughts on stem cell research and Catholicism, in which she clarifies that the official teaching of the Holy See is not the only interpretation of Catholic tradition. She explains that in history and in present theological discussion, there is more than one Catholic line of reasoning, including a strong Catholic moral defense of humanitarian embryo use. Each of the above faculty members is part of the Yale Faculty Working Group on the Ethics of Stem Cell Research. This group also includes John Booss MD, Professor of Neurology and Laboratory Medicine; Robert Bruce MD, in the Yale Divinity School and Yale School of Medicine; Robert Burt JD, Alexander M. Bickel Professor of Law at the Yale Law School; Thomas Duffy MD, Professor of Internal Medicine/Hematology; Arthur Galston PhD, Eaton Professor of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology; Myron Genel MD, Professor of Pediatrics; Maurice Mahoney MD, JD, Professor of Genetics and Obstetrics and Gynecology and chairman of the Yale Human Investigation Committee; Theodore Marmor PhD, Professor in the Yale School of Management; Pasko Rakic PhD, Dorys McConnell Duberg Professor of Neuroscience; Dennis Spencer MD, Harvey and Kate Cushing Professor and chairman, Department of Neurosurgery; and the Reverend John L. Young, Associate Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at the Yale School of Medicine. This group meets regularly and they published an often sited declaration to President Bush in May, 2001 clearly justified that limitations to federal funding for research on hESC lines obtained with appropriate informed consent should not be limited. In addition, the Yale Journal of Health Policy, Law, and Ethics is published twice per year through a joint effort of the Yale Law School, Yale School of Medicine, Yale School of Epidemiology and Public Health, and the Yale School of Nursing. The Yale Journal of Health Policy, Law, and Ethics often features scholarly articles on ethics and policy issues related to science including stem cell research, for example, in 2005 publication of the now often sired manuscript by Dr. O. Carter Snead JD on the “The pedagogical significance of the Bush stem cell policy: A window into bioethical regulation in the United States.” (Yale Journal of Health Policy, Law and Ethics 5:491–504 2005).