Regenerative Medicine

Regenerative medicine is a term coined by Leland Kaiser in a 1992 article. It is a group of biomedical approaches aim at fastening the healing processes, repairing missing or damaged tissue that the body would normally not re-grow. Yet the technologies that might give humankind a promising future also evoke widespread moral hesitation. One of the issues under debate is whether regenerative medicine should only be applied for therapy, or it should also be applied for the indefinite extension of human lifespan with a view to the creation of transhuman or posthuman. Currently, the most prominent form of regenerative technologies attempts to use human stem cells, which promises to enable the body to regenerate itself and to cure a wide range of diseases and disabilities. However, using embryonic stem cells for research and therapy is ethically controversial. Major concern focuses on the moral status of the embryo. Isolating embryonic stem cells requires the destruction of embryos, which, to critics, is equal to murder. The controversies occasioned by regenerative medicine go to the very core of the moral and metaphysical understanding of what it means to be human. I believe that the moral controversy is at the heart of the culture war between the traditional, Christian and post-Christian, secular cultures. All arguments involved have different understanding of human nature. They should be put in the broader context of human goods, meanings, and practices in order to establish a more concrete and immediate foundation for making moral judgments.