Tracking the CIRM: Profound Questions for California Stem Cell Financing, CIRM Performance Audit and More
Editor’s note: This calendar is a standing feature of the California Stem Cell Report to help track activities involving the state stem cell agency, officially known as the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM). The calendar usually appears weekly, depending on developments.
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“What qualifies as an embryo? Or as a human organism? Or indeed, as a human?”
Those are the profound questions on the table this week at a gathering of scientists on the edge of Monterey Bay in California. Not to mention that the $12 billion California stem cell agency will be on the scene with its own squad of ethical experts.
They will be asked on Friday to deal with a draft of regulations that the agency has prepared in case the agency, formally known as the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM), receives an application for funding research involving an embryo model system.
The subject is not one that is likely to be discussed at the Bulldog Sports Pub, only seven minutes away from the site of the scientific meeting at Asilomar in Pacific Grove, Ca.
But it is one that has drawn considerable attention in some circles. “Are human embryo models a cause for hope or alarm?” asks a headline on a column in the Guardian newspaper.
The article by Philip Ball of the Guardian said, “The news on 14 June that scientists had made ‘synthetic human embryos’ caused widespread surprise and alarm. Sounds scary, right?
“Perhaps even, as an editorial in the Guardian suggested, like ‘playing God’ and paving the way towards a dystopian ‘brave new world.’
“The reality is different. For one thing, calling these ‘synthetic embryos’ is rather misleading, even prejudicial – most scientists prefer the term ‘embryo models,’ and they are made from ordinary human cells. And they are not new – the earliest ones were made years ago, although the scientists behind the latest work say they have been able to grow them for longer than before.
“What’s more, these embryo models are not being created out of Frankenstein-like hubris just to see if it’s possible, but could offer valuable new insights into embryology, disease and pregnancy. None has the potential to grow into a human being, nor is there any reason why scientists would want them to. All the same, the work raises urgent ethical questions.”
The answers to those questions and the regulations that result, Ball wrote, “may mean confronting some of the profound questions that embryo models raise. What qualifies as an embryo? Or as a human organism? Or indeed, as a human?”
CIRM’s agenda for its Friday morning meeting of its Standards Group (available online live on CIRM TV) has more information on the subject.
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