HARVARD GAZETTE ARCHIVES

Kass (Staff photos Justin Ide/Harvard News Office)

Ethics of stem cell research front and center

Leon Kass speaks about life, cloning

The discussion, at times brutally frank, centered on reproductive cloning, a procedure most within the scientific community firmly oppose and against which Harvard University has taken an official stand. Leon Kass, chairman of the President's Council on Bioethics from 2001 to 2005, presented a chapter of his 2002 book, "Life, Liberty and the Defense of Dignity: The Challenge for Bioethics," to the group, gathered for the lunchtime event in the Barker Center's Thompson Room.

In his presentation, Kass said that traditional human reproduction is tied into the essence of what people, society, and families are. Tinkering with that through reproductive cloning, he said, would diminish all three. He also warned that the use of reproductive technologies such as in vitro fertilization (IVF) desensitize society, making it more likely that extreme measures such as reproductive cloning will take place.

Prior to a lively discussion about the ethical issues surrounding stem cell research, Doug Melton (from left), Michael Sandel, Leon Kass, and Kevin Eggan talk in the Barker Center's Thompson Room.

"Thirty-five years ago, it would be inconceivable to all but a few, hard-nosed people that the early stages of human life would be a resource to be mined," Kass said. "Do it if you have to, but don't say [a human embryo] is not a living organism. Don't say it's just a bag of cells."

Several faculty members applauded Kass' courage for agreeing to appear before what was a decidedly hostile audience. During the discussion, several faculty members indicated they disagreed with virtually everything Kass said or wrote on the subject.

Johnstone Family Professor of Psychology Steven Pinker was among Kass' harshest critics, saying he disagreed with "every single sentence" of Kass' chapter on cloning. Pinker said he believed that if reproductive cloning could be done without risk to the child the government shouldn't ban it, comparing it with the birth of identical twins, though at different times.

Pinker

Pinker took particular issue with Kass' assertion that a feeling of "repugnance" for certain scientific practices ought to be heeded, saying that repugnance has been used to justify misdeeds against Jews and as an excuse to ban many things now commonly deemed acceptable.

"Time after time, the argument of repugnance has argued against things that are now morally acceptable," Pinker said.

The discussion, titled "Between Two Cultures," was the first of a series to explore the ethical and social aspects of scientific advances. The event was sponsored by Rothenberg Professor of English and American Literature and Language and Director of the Humanities Center Homi Bhabha; Bass Professor of Government Michael Sandel; and Cabot Professor of the Natural Sciences and Co-Director of the Harvard Stem Cell Institute Douglas Melton.

Bhabha said there are issues raised by stem cell research that would benefit from a cross-disciplinary examination involving both the sciences and the humanities.

"There's a very crucial constellation of issues to be addressed between the humanities and the sciences," Bhabha said.

In introducing the event, Provost Steven Hyman said though ethical issues have been raised by stem cell research, stem cells are "just the tip of the iceberg," with other scientific technologies raising similar questions.

"Ultimately, these are questions about our very humanity," Hyman said.

Kass agreed, applauding the event's organizers and saying the ethical discussion touches on issues of "immense importance."

"These issues have been growing in importance since science first started coming to the aid of the human condition," Kass said.

Kass said people's differences over these issues may be "unbridgeable" but that an important consideration is whether we can govern ourselves concerning them.

In order to avoid reproductive cloning, Kass said he is willing to forego possible medical therapies and disease treatments if the technology used in them could also be used in reproductive cloning.

In vitro fertilization was held up as an example of a procedure once thought extreme and morally questionable that is done routinely today. Kass, who once warned against the use of in vitro fertilization, said that on reflection, he does not wish he could have prevented its use.

But, Kass said, society has paid a price for the use of technologically intensive reproductive procedures, and he reminded his audience that he'd predicted in the 1970s, when IVF was first used, that it could lead to cloning.

"We may not be aware of the price we pay for the blessings we have," Kass said. "It is increasingly possible to regard the child as a product of our will. Society is not the same for it. I think we have paid a big price for it."

With Kass emphasizing the importance of the natural bond between parent and child, faculty questioned Kass about his thoughts on adoption. He said that, though relationships between parent and adopted child are important once the child is in the home, the parent often goes through a sense of loss at not being able to have natural children before exploring adoption.

Kass said the bitterness of the battle over these ethical issues around cloning has left the United States without a national policy on them. Scientists are suspicious of government's motives, biotech firms want as little regulation as possible, and opponents of the research don't want the nation on record with anything other than a total ban.

"The U.S. is the outlying nation on this because most players are hostile to any kind of regulation," Kass said.

alvin_powell@harvard.edu

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