Stem Cells, Biotechnology, and Human Rights : Implications for a Posthuman Future

Argues that if stem cell interventions materialize along the lines described by their more avid proponents, it might upend our current ethical commitments, or at least undercut our commitment to them, in part because they might incline us to regard nature, including human nature, as having the status of mere artifact. Gist of the testimony of Francis Collins before the Presidential Council on Bioethics in December 2002; Concerns posed by stem cell research and related biotechnological interventions; Examples of the challenge posed by stem cell research to the natural trajectory to human life.