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KMID : 1025620060090010016
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Korean Journal of Medical Ethics
2006 Volume.9 No. 1 p.16 ~ p.27
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Ethical problems concerning human embryonic research
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Ku In-Hoe
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Abstract
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The moral status of embryos plays a crucially important role in the ethical debates concerning human embryonic research. The continuity of the development of the human being from the moment of conception and the reality of the early embryo as a living organism, a member of the human species, have been underscored by recent biological discoveries. While it makes no sense to say that an adult human being was once a somatic cell or a gamete, it is a fact that every adult human was once an embryo. The embryo is the first stage of my life history, the beginning of my continuous development as a human organism. This claim makes as much sense as the uncontroversial claim that I was once a newborn infant, although I do not have any recollection of cognitive or specifically human "experiences" during that stage of life. Catholic moral teaching on this issue is very clear. Every human life, from its first moment of existence until its natural death, deserves our respect and protection. Human life has intrinsic dignity, as opposed to merely relative or instrumental value. As such, every living member of the human species, including the human embryo, must be treated with the fundamental respect that is due to each person. Thus, Catholic moral teachings regarding respect for human life and any secular ethic in agreement with its basic premises reject all deliberate involvement with the direct killing of human embryos for research or other purposes. Such killing is intrinsically wrong and no beneficial consequences can lessen that wrong. However, there are other reasons, besides those stemming from the definition of "personhood" for opposing human embryonic research. Even those who do not hold the human embryo to be a fullfledged human person can conclude that embryonic stem cell research is unethical.
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KEYWORD
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Human embryonic research, Status of human embryos, Dignity of human life
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