Helena P. de Melo - Portugal
NOVA University Lisbon
STEM CELL SCIENCE, REGENERATIVE MEDICINE, ETHICS AND SOCIETY – UNDERLYING ETHICAL AND LEGAL CONCERNS
This presentation deals with the ethical and legal issues that arise from adult and embryonic stem cell research. We begin with a brief description of the
different types of research projects that are being carried out in this field
and of their importance for developing new treatments for a wide variety of
diseases.
As human embryo stem cell research is done with embryo cells it raises the ethical problem of embryo protection within scientific research and of human dignity.
As the ethical and legal framework of human embryo research is different among the European Countries, we discuss if it is possible to have common
understanding of it in the European Union and Council of Europe. We study the existing international legal framework and its application within the European Court of Human Rights and the European Court of Justice.
Finally we consider what will implications human stem cell research have on the classical concept of human dignity and on the new bioethics trends of understanding it: transhumanism and post humanism.
