The National Institutes of Health Guidelines for Research Using Human Pluripotent Stem Cells contained no surprises for those who have been monitoring the development of those protocols. What some may find surprising is the relative ease with which NIH both appeals to a legal apparition and falls prey to several ethical fallacies. Although these so-called restrictions may appear to limit and even to convey concern about the use of embryos in this research, they fail to provide human embryos with a blanket protection from the destruction which is a necessary aspect of obtaining their stem cells. Herein lies the root problem of the NIH guidelines. Human embryos ought not be the subjects of experimental research aimed at benefitting someone other than the embryos themselves.
Human embryos are just that, human.
The fact that they are very young human beings does not therefore give us the right to use them in destructive research for the benefit of others. So also ought we to find human embryonic stem cell research unconscionable. Aside from the NIH guidelines promotion of an act which is immoral, the guidelines also advocate a protocol which is illegal. NIH dismisses the charge of breaking the law by claiming that it is off the hook legally as long as it ensures that tax dollars are not used to fund the stage of research in which embryos are destroyed. However, the intent of the existing law is clearly to prohibit just the sort of thing NIH is attempting to justify.