Fritz Jahr’s bioethics and the Stem Cell Research
Abstract
The medicine of 21st century seems to give humankind a new hope for treating most diseases
through the wonder of stem cells. Medical scientists have been working hard to find out how to
apply these pluripotent stem cells to enhance our health. There however, ethical concern exists
that the extraction of the primordial stem cell from the blastocyst will cause the withering of
this potential life. There have been ethical debates about what life is and how we can ethically
utilize this life-saving cell to save human life. This paper will consider what Fritz Jahr, the coiner
of Bioethics, sees about life and then discuss what stem cell is and what is involved in this
research. Since the definition of life has been diversified among bioethicists, this paper will
seek theological interpretation as well as bioethical view toward do-no-harm and do-good. This
paper will conclude saying that the further study of a new way to heal human diseases must
continue, but also we need to proceed with the stem cell research with extreme caution.
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