Ethical Issues in Perinatal Tissue Derivation and Regenerative Medicine

Abstract

Regenerative medicine and Tissue Engineering are rapidly developing in every different branches of medicine. Like any other field of scientific activities, these modern features of medicine should be valued within the established ethical frameworks. Furthermore, the wide scope and rapidly growing field of regenerative medicine means that the ethical aspect of this issue is complex and multidimensional. Based on the techniques, kind, and source of the subjects and the goal of the procedures, there would be different ethical considerations. The Main Ethical challenges consist the kind and the origin of the cells and also their deprivation methods, the intended goal of regenerative medicine and its means, and the issue of social justice. Reviewing the ethical challenges of tissue engineering and regenerative medicine shows that, this field is facing some important challenges that are, from ontological to methodological and social ones.

However, the controversy surrounding human embryo destruction to generate stem cells could be bypassed by using the perinatal stem cells. But, other ethical challenges such as safety, and appropriate clinical application, still remain.