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There is an increasing amount of international collaborative biomedical research involving human embryonic stem cells (hESCs), which are promising tools in developing technologies to address several existing health problems like HIV and Alzheimer’s disease.
The recent evolution of collaborative hESC research, however, has been complicated by a range of ethical and social issues, related primarily to the procurement and use of human embryos––which are the preferred source of human stem cells––and to the use of cloning techniques, including the collection of human oocytes (eggs) to create human embryos for stem cell derivation. Researchers working collaboratively across two or more jurisdictions are often required to meet different ethical and practical standards.
There is a dizzying array of rules, regulations, and jurisdictional complexities around this controversial field, such as the U.S. National Academies’ Guidelines; several US state laws; the International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR) guidelines; and guidelines in the European Union, China, India, and other countries. This is bound to create a confusing and intimidating situation for hESC researchers, institutions, and funders.
Attempts to attain international ethical and regulatory consensus, such as that of the ISSCR, raise several issues, such as what guidelines would be followed, what oversight mechanisms would be put in place, and what the feasibility would be of
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