Is This Cell a Human Being? Exploring the Status of Embryos, Stem Cells and Human-Animal Hybrids

From STI's Experts Meeting "Focus on the Embryo," the book Is This Cell a Human Being? Exploring the Status of Embryos, Stem Cells and Human-Animal Hybrids has emerged.  Antoine Suarez, academic leader of the meeting, has edited, along with Joachim Huarte, the papers presented at the 2009 meeting, and commissioned a few others to complete the volume. 

The central question of this book is whether or not particular cell entities of human origin ought to be considered human beings. The answer is crucial for making moral decisions for or against research and experimentation. Experts in the field discuss the production of embryonic-like pluripotent stem cells by altered nuclear transfer, parthenogenesis and reprogramming of adult somatic cells. They thoroughly analyze the biological and moral status of different cell entities, such as human stem cells, embryos and human-animal hybrid embryos, and make a decisive step towards establishing final criteria for what constitutes a human being. The topic is challenging in nature and of broad interest to all those concerned with current bioethical thought on embryonic human life and its implications for society.

The volume contains the following chapters:

• "Introduction," by Joachim Huarte and Antoine Suarez"
• "Breakthrough in Stem Cell Research? The Reprogramming of Somatic Cells to Pluripotent Stem Cells: Overview and Outlook," by Boris Greber and Hans Schöler
• "Preimplantation Stages of Human Development: The Biological and Moral Status of Early Embryos," by Maureen L.Condic
• "Complete Moles and Parthenotes Are Not Organisms," by Nicanor Pier Giorgio Austriaco, O.P.
• "Embryos Grown in Culture Deserve the Same Moral Status as Embryos After Implantation," by Joachim Huarte and Antoine Suarez
• "Distinguishing Embryos from Non-embryos," by Patrick Lee
• "On the Status of Human Embryos and Cellular Entities Produced Through ANT: Are They Persons?" by Pablo Requena Meana
• "Does a Human Being Have a Right to Life? The Debate on Embryo Research in Germany as a Case Study," by Manfred Spieker
• "Interspecies Mixtures and the Status of Humanity," by Neville Cobbe
• "The Boundries of Humanity: The Ethics of Human-Animal Chimeras in Cloning and Stem Cell Research," by William B. Hurlbut    
• "Is This Cell Entity a Human Being? Neural Activity, Spiritual Soul, and the Status of the Inner Cell Mass and Pluripotent Stem Cells," by Antoine Suarez

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