*STS Circle at Harvard* *[image: line.gif] * * * *William Hurlbut* *Stanford University Medical Center* * * on
*Stem Cells, Embryos and Ethics: a Continuing Controversy * ** Monday, March 7th 12:15-2:00 p.m. 124 Mt. Auburn Street, Suite 100, Room 106 [image: line.gif] Lunch is provided if you RSVP. Please RSVP to sts <[email protected]>@hks.harvard.edu<[email protected]> by 5pm Thursday, March 3rd. * * *Abstract:* After more than a decade of debate, discord and political maneuvering, the controversy over embryonic stem cell research continues. President Obama's executive order increasing the number of cell lines available for federal funding has been challenged in court and awaits final ruling; several cell lines approved under President Bush are no longer considered ethically procured; and though there has been encouraging progress with non-embryonic, alternative sources of pluripotent stem cells, technical challenges remain and there are renewed calls for 'cloning' to produce patient-specific cell lines for therapeutic use. Moreover, public frustration with the pace of progress with embryonic stem cells, and promising studies with adult stem cells (including fetal cells) have added troubling ethical issues of their own. What is needed is a comprehensive policy, grounded in coherent moral principles and solid science, that will open a way forward with consensus--but, given the current political climate, we may instead be heading for continuing controversy. *Biography*: William B. Hurlbut is a physician and Consulting Professor in the Department of Neurology and Neurological Sciences at Stanford University Medical Center. His primary areas of interest involve the ethical issues associated with advancing biomedical technology, the biological basis of moral awareness, and studies in the integration of theology and philosophy of biology. In addition to teaching at Stanford, he has worked with NASA on projects in astrobiology and as a member of the Chemical and Biological Warfare working group at Stanford’s Center for International Security and Cooperation. From 2002-2009 Dr. Hurlbut served on the President's Council on Bioethics. He is the author of Altered Nuclear Transfer, a proposed technological solution to the moral controversy over embryonic stem cell research. A complete list of STS Circle at Harvard events can be found on our website: http://www.hks.harvard.edu/sts/events/sts_circle/ --------------------------------- Samuel A. Evans, DPhil Postdoctoral Fellow & Chair of the STS Circle Harvard University Program on Science, Technology, & Society Kennedy School of Government http://www.hks.harvard.edu/sts +1 (617) 496-0807
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