RESUMO
Information on early embryo wastage is relevant for debating the status of human embryos. Two main points of view confront each other. Theists hold that human embryos should be treated as human persons from the moment of conception because, even accepting that human beings are the fruit of evolution, they are part of a divine project. Without a developmental event prior to which the human embryo could not be considered a human being, embryos should be regarded as if they were human subjects. After all, if one believes in the resurrection of the dead, it makes no difference at what stage one's life ends. Secularists oppose the idea of granting absolute value to human life from its beginning because early human embryos lack individuality and sentience. Personifying embryos is morally absurd because it would mean that countless human beings never had even the slightest chance to express their potential and, in the light of this catastrophic loss, one would expect early pregnancy wastage to have become an important research priority; this is not the case. In practical terms, most Western countries have legalized first-trimester abortion, de facto giving embryos a lower status than that of full person.
Assuntos
Início da Vida Humana , Temas Bioéticos , Perda do Embrião , Religião e Ciência , Feminino , Humanos , GravidezRESUMO
This article presents the Catholic Christian tradition and teaching on the moral respect due to human life from conception, supported by natural law moral philosophical reasoning. This approach contrasts with the ethical views of secular philosophers on human embryo research for therapeutic purposes. The challenges for Catholic healthcare institutions is to find ethical ways of using suitable pluripotent stem cells for therapies without creating or destroying human embryos. Catholic teaching on infertility treatment and reproductive technology are presented with emphasis given to the ethical need for children to be conceived and born of the marriage union compared with alterative ethical approaches for the use of infertility treatment and reproductive technology.
Assuntos
Catolicismo , Técnicas de Reprodução Assistida/ética , Clonagem de Organismos/ética , Embrião de Mamíferos , Feminino , Fertilização , Transferência Intrafalopiana de Gameta/ética , Homossexualidade Feminina , Direitos Humanos , Humanos , Recém-Nascido , Inseminação Artificial Heteróloga/ética , Masculino , Casamento , Doação de Oócitos/ética , Gravidez , Religião e Medicina , Pais Solteiros , Mães SubstitutasAssuntos
Pesquisas com Embriões/ética , Embrião de Mamíferos/citologia , Oócitos/citologia , Células-Tronco Pluripotentes , Valor da Vida , Início da Vida Humana/ética , Clonagem de Organismos , Epigênese Genética/ética , Sangue Fetal/citologia , Feto , Humanos , Técnicas de Transferência Nuclear , Pessoalidade , Células-Tronco Pluripotentes/citologiaAssuntos
Catolicismo , Pesquisas com Embriões/ética , Transplante de Tecido Fetal/ética , Células-Tronco Pluripotentes/transplante , Transplante de Células-Tronco/ética , Aborto Espontâneo , Embrião de Mamíferos/citologia , Feminino , Financiamento Governamental , Impressão Genômica , Humanos , Gravidez , Gravidez Ectópica , Apoio à Pesquisa como AssuntoRESUMO
KIE: Ford's book on the question of when human personhood begins, When Did I Begin? Conception of the Human Individual in History, Philosophy and Science (Cambridge University Press; 1988), is reviewed by Michael J. Coughlan in this issue of Bioethics. Here Ford responds to Coughlan's review, focusing on three topics: the importance of rationality for personhood, how far back one can trace the ontological identity of what is indisputably a human individual and human person, and the difference between the awareness of the reality of human persons and the varying degrees of perception of their value in the family and society.^ieng