trivial morality

The term “boundary object” presented by Williams et. al. mimics some the discussion we saw in R. M Green’s discussion of embryos. Green notes that the embryo has become a symbol for those with religious reasons to prevent research. He points out that even President Bush, who passed legislation to prevent further embryonic stem cell research (ESC), dismisses the thousands of embryos that get destroyed during the IVF process. This inconsistency seems to be remedied by what scientists in Williams et. al. research claim as a primary goal of ESC: use spare embryos for research. As babies are made through IVF, they undergo pre-implantation genetic diagnosis (PGD). When genetic abnormalities are found, those embryos don’t get implanted. Since scientists want those embryos for research it seems to make sense to have less embryos “chucked in the bin” and more used for their potential to save life.

In lecture you said that often the most important lessons are found in the trivial things, and creating less waste embryos is an issue of practicality. I was thinking in order to get the embryos from the private IVF clinics to major research facilities they have to have a connection. I wonder how many IVF clinics have relationships with research facilities? It seems like the reason embryos are being created just for research (instead of using “leftovers”) is that it’s just easier. It’s a pragmatic issue, requiring teamwork to get separate facilities to share embryos.

The IVF/PGD world is separate from the hESC research world. The only link they have is the embryo, thus making it a boundary object, or bridge between the two worlds. But it’s not that easy. There still needs to be a reason for the two worlds to work together, and that could be seen as trivial to some, and a matter of morality to others.

The article on human embryos as “boundary objects” was a good reminder of the human-ness of lab scientists and emotional, real, and controversial work being done in biomedical science. I find it interesting that the science world is willing to consider the essence of an embryo. I spent many years believing that stem cell research was done by heartless lab scientists looking for ways to make money from the exploitation of life. Through the readings in this course I can now say that this issue isn’t taken lightly by either side of the issue.