Research on human embryos is restricted, by nongovernmental guidelines, to the first 14 days of their development in the United States, or to the formation of the primitive streak — an observable, early step in the formation of neural tissue. In 2016, scientists in the U.S. and the U.K. published reports on the first successful attempts to cultivate human embryos in vitro that survived for a full 14 days, stopping research for the first time because of the guideline. Many scientists and ethicists are now questioning the validity of the deadline. Is it an ethically justifiable point to end research? Or is it just a public policy tool to limit research that previously was only hypothetically possible? At this event, scientists, policy scholars and ethicists presented preliminary research on the 14-day limit on human embryo research from scientific, policy and ethical perspectives.
This event was sponsored by the Baker Institute Center for Health and Biosciences. Funding for this program was generously provided by a grant from The Greenwall Foundation.
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Agenda
8:00 am
Breakfast and Registration
8:30 am
Welcome
Neal F. Lane, Ph.D.
Senior Fellow in Science and Technology Policy, Baker Institute
Kirstin R.W. Matthews, Ph.D.
Fellow in Science and Technology Policy, Baker Institute
8:45 am
Panel I — Human embryo research: What we know, how we know it and what more we can learn
Moderated by: Jason S. Robert, Ph.D., Lincoln Chair in Ethics, Associate Professor of Life Sciences, and Director, Lincoln Center for Applied Ethics, Arizona State University
Daniel S. Wagner, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of BioSciences, Rice University; and Baker Institute Rice Faculty Scholar
Ali H. Brivanlou, Ph.D.
Robert and Harriet Heilbrunn Professor and Head, Laboratory of Stem Cell Biology and Molecular Embryology, The Rockefeller University
10:00 am
Break
10:10 am
Panel II — Human embryo research: U.S. policy landscape and ethical questions to consider
Moderated by: Inmaculada de Melo-Martin, Ph.D., Professor of Medical Ethics in Medicine, Weill Cornell Medical College
Kirstin R.W. Matthews, Ph.D.
Fellow in Science and Technology Policy, Baker Institute
Ana S. Iltis, Ph.D.
Professor of Philosophy and Director, Center for Bioethics, Health and Society, Wake Forest University; and Nonresident Scholar for Biomedical Research Policy, Baker Institute
11:30 am
Closing Remarks
Kirstin R.W. Matthews, Ph.D.
Fellow in Science and Technology Policy, Baker Institute
Private workshop to follow, by invitation only