Stem Cell Ethics: What’s Old is New Again

Introduction:

On October 17, 2023, Dr. Insoo Hyun, Ph.D., presented the 2023 Robert L. Wolen Lecture in Bioethics, "Stem Cell Ethics: What’s Old is New Again," sponsored by Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, IUSM, and the IU Center for Bioethics, as part of the IU Bioethics Grand Rounds Series.

Dr. Hyun is the Director of the Center for Life Sciences and Public Learning at Boston’s Museum of Science and a member of Harvard Medical School’s Center for Bioethics.

Stem cells are currently being used to model human development and disease in the form of self-organizing embryo models, brain organoids, and neurological chimeras. These new research directions are resurrecting old embryo debates around moral status and personhood – old questions that must be tackled in these new contexts.

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