• Question: As, a stem cell scientist, when do you believe life to begin = the embryo or the actual baby formed?

    Asked by karine to James, Jayne, Sharon on 25 Mar 2011 in Categories: .
    • Photo: Sharon Sneddon

      Sharon Sneddon answered on 24 Mar 2011:

      HI Karine,
      I personally believe that life begins at the moment of conception, because at that time, the fertilised egg has the potential to grow into a fully formed human being.
      However, I don’t think it’s wrong to use an embryo in research, even athough I believe it’s capable of becoming a human, it does not actually mean it will. The embryos we are allowed to use in research will never grow into a baby because either they are not good enough or the people who donated those embryos do not want another child.

      In normal pregnancy, very early embryos sadly die very often, normally without the mother even knowing that she is pregnant, and by studying embryos in the way I do, and by using stem cells, I am hoping to be able to understand why this is.
      What do you think??
      I hope that answers your question?

    • Photo: James Chan

      James Chan answered on 25 Mar 2011:

      Hi Karine, that is a tough question to answer and is the centre of a massive debate. I myself work with adult stem cells, which do not have the potential to become a fully formed human being, so my research avoids all these kinds of difficult issues. However, it is important that we understand the 2 sides of the debate.
      Embryos represent POTENTIAL human beings, but have not, to me, acquired a fully human status yet. The reason is they have not developed consciousness or the ability to feel any pain, the ability of reason and make choices – these are things that make humans humans. So for me, if there are embryos that are going to expire anyway by natural means, for example, surplus IVF embryos, then I think it’s ok to use them for research because of the tremendous amount of benefit this can bring to alleviate suffering of people, who at the moment, have conditions that are incurable.

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