Eighth to the Sixteenth Century - Rashid Islamic Center

Islam and Modern Science: Contemporary Issues • 215theft of recently buried cadavers to the unethical use of placentasand umbilical cords to produce stem cells for huge profit.When a sperm and an ovum fuse together, a fertilized egg isproduced. This begins to divide, ultimately yielding the full humanbody. In the very early phases of division, the daughter cells are“totipotent”—each may be capable of starting off as if it were themother cell, to yield a complete individual. Later generations of cells,which cannot give a total body but can, under special treatment, bedirected to produce certain tissues or organs, are called “multipotent”or “stem cells.” Stem cells produced from adult blood or placenta andumbilical cord blood are helpful in the treatment of a limited numberof diseases, while stem cells recovered from the early embryo hold thepromise of curing a wider range of known diseases. This has led to apractice of destroying a living embryo for harvesting stem cells.The sequence and timing of research has dictated a certainorder to the dilemmas. For instance, IVF techniques have producedthousands of frozen embryos stored in various laboratories aroundthe world. Later it became known that frozen embryos have a highincidence of pathogenic mutations. With advances in stem cellresearch it became obvious that these embryos can be used to harveststem cells. Does this not amount to destroying a living embryo?These dilemmas are not merely ethical and religious in naturebut also legal, requiring governments to legislate laws. In the Westernworld, legislation on these issues has emerged from an institutionalstructure already in place. These procedures have allowed theparticipation of scientists, lawmakers, and all kinds of religiousand public opinions to play an active role in the process. Whetheror not a certain government allows and funds stem cell research hasbeen determined through these existing procedures, and decisionsremain open to future modifications. For example, Canada had nolaws or guidelines to govern stem cell research or federal fundinguntil March 2002, when the Canadian Institutes of Health Research(CIHR) announced guidelines for human pluripotent stem cellresearch. These were adopted by the major federal funding agencies;it was agreed that no research with human pluripotent stem cellswould be funded without the prior review and approval of theStem Cell Oversight Committee (SCOC) in conformity with CIHRguidelines. While the CIHR was developing these guidelines, the