HARVARD GAZETTE ARCHIVES

Anne T. and Robert M. Bass Professor of Government Michael Sandel (from left), Senior Lecturer on History and Literature Steven Biel, and Morris Loeb Professor of Chemistry Stuart Schreiber listen intently to the discussion taking place during 'Between Two Cultures,' a series of gatherings bringing together stem cell scientists and humanists to broaden the understanding of both groups. (Staff photos Justin Ide/Harvard News Office)

The "Between Two Cultures" series, co-sponsored by the Harvard Stem Cell Institute (HSCI) and the Humanities Center, is intended to foster understanding of and discussion about stem cell science and the social and ethical issues it raises. Scientists and humanists of diverse points of view take part in these talks. The inaugural session in late October, featuring a lecture on human cloning by Leon Kass, past director of the President's Council on Bioethics, developed into an intense, at times heated, debate.

But last week's session was far calmer, and was intended by Sandel, the Anne T. and Robert M. Bass Professor of Government, to take a step backward, in order to lay the groundwork for future sessions next semester. There was "some feeling after the [initial] discussion that we should have one session early on in the series without an outside speaker, but have a conversation among colleagues," Sandel said, explaining the purpose of the second gathering.

And so, the approximately 50 faculty members gathered in the late afternoon of Dec. 8 in a living room-like setting in the Barker Center's Thompson Room, listened first to an overview of stem cell science from Douglas Melton, Cabot Professor of the Natural Sciences and co-director of HSCI, and then discussed a bioethics case study laid out by Sandel.

Melton, who has created 17 embryonic stem cell lines and distributed them to other researchers, began by explaining that the interest in human embryonic stem cells derives from them having two unique properties: the ability to self-replicate, or self-renew; and the capacity to then differentiate into any cell type in the body. Thus the hope and belief that stem cells can ultimately be used to produce treatments and cures for numerous degenerative diseases, including Parkinson's, diabetes, heart disease, cancer, and a host of others.

After laying out the basic science, Melton then proceeded to briefly explain "why this research is controversial. It gets to a question of when life begins," he said, and to other questions, as well, "that cannot and should not be easily dismissed." In fact, he said, the questions arising out of stem cell research are not things that scientists believe "we should think about by ourselves; these are very difficult questions and we welcome" society's input.

Rather than follow Melton's presentation with a discussion of ethical issues directly related to stem cell research, Sandel presented an ethics case study that allowed participants to think about how we consider bioethical issues related to reproduction and genetics.

Sandel told the story of a deaf lesbian couple, deeply committed to the deaf community and culture, who wanted to have a child, but wanted to do everything they could to increase the chances that their child would also be deaf. Using sperm from a fifth-generation deaf male, they did in fact have a deaf child. Those attending the session, after voting two-to-one that the couple was within its rights to do what it did, spent the remaining hour in a lively discussion of the issues raised by the case.