• Question: What do you think are the ethics within your research and what you do, if any?

    Asked by jackt to Emma, James, Jayne, Kara, Sharon on 16 Mar 2011 in Categories: .
    • Photo: Sharon Sneddon

      Sharon Sneddon answered on 16 Mar 2011:

      Hi Jackt,
      Stem cells research raises a lot of ethical questions. Especially embryonic stem cells. Because we work with human eggs and embryos, these have the potential to become a human life so there are lots of things to think about before we carry out any experiments. We have to follow fules and regulations and ethics come into that, we work under a government body called the Human Embryology and Fertilisation Authority and they have lots of people working for them, from scientists, to doctors, to religious people to everyday people who are not scientists and they look at our exeriments and decide if we can carry them out. Once we have that permission, we then go to our University and hospital ethics committe to make sure they are hapy with what we are doing.
      I think having all these things in place makes us think really carefully about the ethics of our work.

      My personal beliefs on stem cells are that they are a good thing. I think that anything that has the potential to help people from suffering illnesses like cancer or diabetes or parkinsons disease should be researched thoroughly to try and help as many people.

      All the work I do is very ethical and I am sure that stem cells are a great thing if used correctly.

    • Photo: Jayne Charnock

      Jayne Charnock answered on 16 Mar 2011:

      Hi Jackt,

      Ethics are something that I think its really important that all scientists are very aware of. Even if something is within the law, you must consider if you believe it to be morally or ethically right and how your research might oppose your beliefs. In my research career I have been exposed to 2 issues which I had to really think hard about whether I was happy to be doing. Firstly I worked on placental development- and it was necessary to collect samples from placenta’s from very early on in development. Women who came to the hospital where I worked for a pregnancy termination very kindly donated the placenta to our research- i had VERY strong feelings about this as I am essentially against abortion and i found the idea very upsetting at first. But i decided that if something good (i.e. helping very sick babies in the future) could come out of something so sad, then that was better than it being a waste, and the women themselves were at least glad of something positive being done. I constantly questioned (and still do) whether it is right morally, although it is considered ethical by the various ethical committees which all such research has to get the OK from. It is a very emotional issue which comes with very strong feelings and is something that is NEVER taken lightly by the researchers. For example, Im still not sure whether I would work with embryonic stem cells, it is something I would have to consider seriously before I did. But the placenta was never destined to be anything other than something that supported the pregnancy and is discarded at the end.

      Secondly I now work with mice, something i didnt think i would ever do. But in doing to I have had to confront my own feelings about animal testing and that has been a good thing. Now I understand more about the laws involved and the very high standard of care that the animals recieve, I am much more supportive of it. Legally we must justify the life of every animal we use, and personally I find i must do that too, i take it very seriously and i believe everything I do with the animals must be to some future good or else I wont do it!

      What sort of ethic issues concern you most about science?

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