ONTOLOGICAL PERSONALISM AND THE ETHICS OF STEM CELL RESEARCH

Abstract

Embryonic stem cell research (ESCR), which involves the use of human embryo for research purposes, has generated serious debate over the status of the human embryo in recent times. Earlier studies by the pro-choice and pro-life theorists focused mostly on the functional and moral status of the embryo, but both failed to adequately conceptualise the ontological status of the embryo which gives substance to its personhood and moral status. This study, therefore, critiqued earlier positions on the personhood of the embryo and proposed Kant and Wojtyla’s personalistic ethics which states that personhood intrinsically subsists in the human embryo. This is with a view to establishing that the embryo is a person that should not be destroyed for the sake of research. The study adopted as framework Kant’s Categorical Imperative, which rejects the instrumentalisation of the human person, and Wojtyla’s Personalistic Norm, which states that the embryo is an individualised substance with a distinct unity of essence. Selected works of Kant, particularly Fundamental Principles of Metaphysics of Morals (FPMM) and Groundwork of Metaphysics of Morals (GMM), and works of Wojtyla, especially Love and Responsibility (LR), Destined for Liberty (DL) and Person and Community (PC), were used. These works deal extensively with ethics and the ontology of persons. The analytic method helped in clarifying such concepts as stem cell, human embryo, personhood, and ontology. Critical method was employed to examine the arguments for and against the personhood of the embryo, while the reconstructive method combined Kant and Wojtyla’s ethical theories to establish the personhood of the embryo. Works by pro-choice and pro-life theorists offered a reductionist-functionalist account of the human embryo, thereby presenting a false anthropology of the status of the embryo. But, works by Kant showed that, ontologically, all human persons have moral value and as such should be treated as ends in themselves and never as means only. Furthermore, the Kantian principles of respect for humanity and universality showed that there is a moral duty to preserve human life at all stages (FPMM and GMM). These principles support Wojtyla’s ontological personalism which affirms the personality of the embryo even at the incipient stage of development (LR, PC). This is because the embryo is a unique, individual person with its own distinct essence and this renders it sacred and inviolable at every moment of existence (LR, PC and DL). There is no scientifically non-arbitrary point, and morally significant difference between the embryonic and the adult stage of humans, as the human embryo contains exactly the same amount of genetic information as a full adult. These further supports Wojtyla’s ontological personalism, that the embryo is not different from the adult person in kind. Hence, embryonic stem cell research is a destruction of the human life at its incipient stage. As it is not ethical to use adult persons for research in ways that would be detrimental to their lives, so also, stem cell research is unethical because it is injurious to the being of the human embryo. ` Keywords: Human embryo, Ontological personalism, Personhood, Ethics of stem cell research. Word count: 495