Renewing the stuff of life : stem cells, ethics, and public policy / Cynthia B. Cohen.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 244-295) and index.

Print version record.

Introduction -- 1. What are stem cells? How do they function? What might they do? -- 2. The search for new sources of pluripotent stem cells -- 3. The moral significance of early human embryos in secular thought -- 4. The moral significance of early human embryos in religious thought -- 5. Creating human-nonhuman chimeras in stem cell research -- 6. International stem cell research and research cloning : three contrasting approaches -- 7. The development of national policy on stem cell research in the United States -- 8. In pursuit of national review and oversight of stem cell research in the United States -- Appendix A. NIH guidelines for funding of human pluripotent stem cell research, August 25, 2000 -- Appendix B. Speech by President George W. Bush regarding human stem cell research, August 9, 2001 -- Appendix C. Withdrawal of NIH guidelines for research using human pluripotent stem cells, November 2, 2001 -- Appendix D. NIH criteria for federal funding of human pluripotent stem cells, November 7, 2001 -- Appendix E. President George W. Bush's veto of the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act of 2005, July 2006.

Stem cell therapy is ushering in a new era of medicine in which we will be able to repair human organs and tissue at their most fundamental level- that of the cell. The power of stem cells to regenerate cells of specific types, such as heart, liver, and muscle, is unique and extraordinary. In 1998 researchers learned how to isolate and culture embryonic stem cells, which are only obtainable through the destruction of human embryos. An ethical debate has raged since then about the ethics of this research, usually pitting pro-life advocates vs. those who see the great promise of curing some of h.

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