Review of 'The Morality of Embryo Use' By Louis M. Guenin: Cambridge University Press, 2008. x + 274 pp. £45.00 cloth, £15.99 paper

Abstract

It is becoming increasingly apparent that human embryo research has the very real potential to generate significant humanitarian benefits. Equally, it is clear that the destruction of embryos that such research inevitably involves is highly controversial within societies such as ours, where many hold either that from the moment of conception the embryo is morally considerable or that as a member of the human species it should not be treated as a mere means. How might we balance the potential humanitarian benefits of embryo research against the various strongly felt moral objections to such use? In this rich and highly sophisticated work, Guenin argues for the experimental use of a bounded range of embryos, namely those which were intentionally produced for research 'ex utero' and for which the progenitor has explicitly banned any intrauterine transfer. He argues that since they are not possible persons, it is morally permissible to perform experiments on this set of embryos (which he calls 'epidosembryos'). Indeed, he suggests that given the suffering that such research might relieve, it would be uncaring for us not to undertake it (258). As one might expect, the focus of the book is primarily on stem cell research.